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OF  THE 

Theological  Seminary 

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THEOUaH  PEE8IA 

BY  CARAYAK 


By  aethur  Arnold, 

AUTHOR  OF  “from  THE  LEVANT,”  ETC. 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 
franklin  square. 

18  77. 


MuQtxihth 


TO  THE 


EARL  AND  COUNTESS  GRANVILLE. 


PREFACE. 


During  the  summer  of  IS'TOj  my  wife  and  I  left  London, 
intending  to  travel  through  Russia  and  Persia.  In  the  fol¬ 
lowing  chapters  I  have  transcribed  our  notes,  commencing 
at  Warsaw.  From  Poland  we  passed  to  St.  Petersburg, 
and  from  the  Russian  capital  southward  to  Astrakhan.  We 
traversed  the  Caspian  Sea  from  extreme  north  to  south,  and, 
landing  at  Enzelli,  rode  through  the  whole  length  of  Persia 
— a  distance  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles.  Leavinor  the 
Caspian  Sea  early  in  October,  we  arrived  at  the  Persian  Gulf 
in  February.  In  March  we  were  in  Bombay;  in  April  at 
Alexandria. 

Had  I  chosen  a  Persian  title  for  these  notes  of  travel,  I 
would  have  taken  Zil-ullah,”  which  is  assumed  by  the  two 
great  sovereigns  of  the  Mohammedan  world.  Hazr-ed-deen, 
Kajar,  Shah  of  Persia,  and  Abd-ul-Hamid,  Sultan  of  Turkey, 
are  styled,  in  the  high  official  language  of  their  own  coun¬ 
tries,  ‘‘Zil-ullah”  (Shadows  of  God).  In  Christendom  there 
is  one  sovereign,  and  only  one,  the  Tsar,  upon  whom  is  im¬ 
posed  the  awful  burden  of  representing  the  ideal  of  wisdom, 
justice,  mercy,  and  goodness. 


6 


PEEFACE. 


Civilization  —  the  extension  of  civil  rights  —  has  taught 
the  Western  world  to  look  with  some  contempt  upon 
this  assumption  of  supernatural  dignity.  It  is  a  preten¬ 
sion  which  is  doomed  to  fade  away,  and  to  become  extinct. 
It  dies  unlamented,  because  it  lives  by  force  —  by  with¬ 
holding  from  mankind,  or,  at  best,  by  holding  in  trust  for 
mankind,  their  birthright  of  liberty  and  responsibility;  nev¬ 
er  deigning  to  admit  that  the  sources  of  its  power  are  other 
than  divine. 

A.  A. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Vistula. — Warsaw. — ^French  Sympathies, — Partition  of  Poland.— Pass¬ 
port  and  Local  Regulations. — The  Three  Imperial  Courts. — The  Turkish 
Capitulations. — The  Ideal  Pole. — The  Real  Pole. — Religion  in  Poland. — 
Hotel  d’Europe. — Statue  of  John  Sobieski. — Lazienski  Palace. — Russian 
Government. — Napoleon  at  Warsaw. — Grodno. — Wilna. — “  Tronfolger’s 
Namstag” . . . . . . . Page  17 

CHAPTER  II. 

Russian  Railway  Carriages. — Russian  Ventilation. — Dunaburg. — White 
Sand. — Droschky  Tickets. — St.  Petersburg. — Exaggerated  Praise. — New- 
ski  Prospekt. — ^^The  Hermitage. — Winter  Palace. — St.  Isaac’s  Church. — 
The  Old  Cathedral. — Tombs  of  the  Romanoffs. — Down  the  Neva. — Cron- 
stadt. — Droschky-driving, — The  Gostinnoi  Dvor. — The  Kazan  Church. — 
The  Russian  Language.^ — The  Road  to  Moscow.... .  29 

CHAPTER  III. 

Moscow.  —  The  Native  Capital  of  Russia. — The  Kitai-Gorod. — Lubianka 
Street. — The  Kremlin. — The  Holy  Gate. — The  Redeemer  of  Smolensk. — 
Bell-tower  of  Ivan. — Church  Bells. — Church  of  the  Assumption. — Dean 
Stanley’s  Description. — The  Coronation  Platform. — The  Virgin  of  Vladi¬ 
mir. — Corner  Tombs. — The  Young  Demetrius. — John  the  Terrible. — The 
Tsar  Kolokol. — The  Foundling  Hospital. — Nurses  and  Babies. —  “Nes 
avant  Terme.”  —  Moral  and  Social  Results. — Cathedral  of  St.  Basil. — 
John  the  Idiot. — The  Lobnoe  Mesto. — Iverskaya  Chasovnia. — How  the 
Metropolitan  is  paid. — Virgin  from  Mount  Athos. — Tsar  and  Patriarch. 
— Motto  from  Troitsa . . . .  30 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Road  to  Nijni. — Rivers  Oka  and  Volga.*— Nijni. — The  Bridge  of  Boats. 


8 


CONTENTS. 


— The  Heights  of  Nijni. — Lopachef’s  Hotel. — A  Famous  Landscape. — 
Prisoners  for  Siberia. — Their  Wives  and  Children. — The  Great  Fair. — 
The  Last  Bargains. — Caravan  Tea. — Persian  Merchants. — Buildings  of 
the  Fair. — Gloves  and  Furs. — Kussian  Tea-dealers. — Mosque  at  Nijni. — 
Shows  and  Theatres. — Kussia  vs.  Free  Trade. — Eussian  Hardware. — Ar¬ 
ticles  de  Paris. — Melons  and  Grapes. — The  Governor’s  Palace. — Pictur¬ 
esque  Nijni . Page  50 

CHAPTER  V. 

Leaving  Nijni. — The  Tsarevna  Marie. — Tickets  for  Two  Thousand  Miles. — 
Our  Fellow-passengers. — The  Alexander  II. — Kazan. — Mohammedans  in  « 
Russia. — Our  Lady  of  Kazan. — “No  Sheets!” — Oriental  Cleanliness. — 
Russian  Climate  and  Clothing. — Orientalism  in  Russia. — Persian  Prayers. 
— A  Shi’ah’s  Devotions. — Shallowness  of  the  Volga. — The  River  Kama. 
— Hills  about  Simbirsk. — Samara. — Mare’s-milk  Cure. — Volsk. — Saratof. 
— Tartar  Population. — Prisoners  for  the  Caucasus  Tsaritzin. — Sarepta. — 
Gingerbread  and  Mustard. — Chorney  Yar. — A  Peasant  Mayor. — Tartar 
Fishermen. — Astrakhan. — Mouths  of  the  Volga. — Raising  Level  of  the 
Caspian . .  63 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Louis  XIV.  and  the  Tsar. — Russian  Church  and  State. — Empress  Anne’s 
Buffoon. — Prayers  for  the  Tsar. — The  Russian  Press.  —  Censorship. — 
Press  Regulations.  —  The  Moscow  Gazette.  —  Difficulties  of  Journalists. 
— The  Wjedomosti. — The  Russki  Mir. — Russia  not  Russian. — Foreign 
Races. — New  Military  System. — The  Emancipation  of  the  Serfs. — The 
Communal  System. — Bad  Farming. — Ignorance  of  the  Peasantiy. — The 
Corn  Trade. — Complaints  from  Odessa. — Resurrection  of  Sebastopol. — 
Corn  from  Russia  and  the  United  States. — The  Artel  of  Odessa. — De¬ 
mands  of  Odessa  Merchants. — A  Viceroy  wanted. — English  Interests  in 
Russian  Corn. — The  Soil  of  Russia. — The  Conquests  of  Russia. — Contrast 
with  Persia. — Borrowed  Money. — Unprofitable  Railways. — Revenue  of 
Russia. — Produce  of  Poll-tax. — Privileged  Citizens .  80 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Delta  of  the  Volga. — Persian  Passengers. — The  Constantine. — Pe- 
trovsk. — Derbent. — “Le  Feu  ^Iternel.” — Persian  Merchandise. — Persian 
Clothing. — A  Colored  Deck-load. — Russian  Trio  of  Spirits. — “Un  Knut 
Russo.” — Baku. — “Dominique.” — Dust  of  Baku. — The  Khan  of  Baku. — 
The  Maiden’s  Tower. — Russian  Naval  Station. — Petrolia  in  Asia. — Baku 


CONTENTS. 


9 


Oil-carts.  — Tlie  Petroleum  Wells.  — Kalafy  Company.  — Pire-worsliip. — 
Parsees  and  Persians.  — The  Indian  Priest.  — The  Siirahhani  Temple. — 
Manufacture  of  Petroleum,..., . . Page  99 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Bathing  in  the  Caspian. — The  Way  to  Europe. — A  Tarantas. — The  Baku 
Club.  — Mihailovski  Gardens.  — Leaving  Baku.  — Lenkoran. — Astara. — 
Petroleum  on  Deck. — Enzelli. — Persian  Boatmen. — Mr.  Consul  Church¬ 
ill,  C.B.  — Enzelli  Custom-house.  — Sadr  Azem's  Konak.  — The  Shah’s 
Yacht. — Lake  of  Enzelli.— Peri-bazaar. — Province  of  Ghilan. — Resht. — 
Bazaar  and  “Green.”  —  Women  of  Persia. — Their  Street  Costume. 
Shopping  in  Bazaar. — Riding  in  Persia. — Chapar  and  Caravan. — Kerja- 
vas, — A  Takht-i-rawan. — Leaving  Resht. — Charvodars  and  Gholams. — 
Lucky  and  Unlucky  Days. — Whips  of  Iron. — “  Ul-lah.” — The  Bell  Mule. 
— Housseiii  Mounted. — The  First  Station. — Our  Camp  Kitchen. — A  Mud 
Hovel.. . . . . . . .  113 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Month  Ramadan. — Mohammed’s  First  Wife. — Ramadan  in  the  Koran. 
— The  Nocturnal  Kalian. — ^Loading  Up. — A  Persian  Landlord. — Persian 
Money  :  Tomans,  Krans,  and  Shihees. — Counting  Money. — Persian  Mints. 
—  Rich  Provinces.  —  Kudem.  —  Chapar-khanah.  —  Bala-khanah.  —  Con¬ 
structed  to  Smoke.  —  Caravanserais.  —  Unfurnished  Apartments.  —  Our 
Bell-mule. — A  Traveled  Khan. — The  Safid-Rud. — Rustemabad. — ^Village 
of  Rhudbar. — Parchenar. — Khan  offers  his  Tree.— A  Night  in  the  Operr. 
— Mistaken  for  a  Thief. — “  The  Bells  !” — Camels  in  the  Path . .  132 

CHAPTER  X. 

How  Hills  are  Made.  —  Kharzan. — Mazara.  —  A  Persian  Village. — John 
Milton  and  Casbeen.— The  Plain  of  Kasveen.— The  Mirage. — Gardens  of 
Kasveen. — Dervishes. — Decay  of  Kasveen. — A  Persian  Town. — Women 
of  Kasveen. — Persian  Costumes. — “Allahu  Akbar.” — Mosque  of  Kasveen, 
— Telegram  from  Teheran, — Visit  to  the  Khan. — His  Love  Affairs. — 
Lost  in  Kasveen. — Abdulabad. — An  Alarm  and  an  Arrival. — “  Gosro- 
zink,” — Native  Plows. — On  to  Karij. — Lodged  in  the  Shah’s  Palace. — 
The  Imperial  Saloon. — An  Imperial  Bedroom. — Approach  to  Teheran. — 
Population  of  the  Capital. — The  Kasveen  Gate, — Mud  Houses  and  Walls. 
— The  Imperial  Theatre. — Entrance  to  the  “Arg.” — Neglect  of  Public 
Works. — British  Legation. — Mirza  Houssein  Khan. — Teheran  Bazaar. — 
Caravanserai  Ameer . . . 148 


1* 


10 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  XL 

Teheran. — Street  of  the  Eoreign  Envoys. — The  British  Minister. — Lanterns 
of  Ceremony. — The  English  in  Telieran. — The  Shah’s  Palace. — Mirza 
Houssein  Khan.— The  Sipar  Salar.— An  Oriental  Minister. —Persian  Cor¬ 
ruption. — Mirza  Houssein  Khan’s  Policy. — His  Retinue. — Brigandage  in 
Persia. — Saloon  of  Audience. — The  Jeweled  Globe. — The  Shah’s  Throne. 
—The  Old  Hall.— Persians  and  the  Alhambra. —The  Shah  receiving 
Homage. — Rustem  and  the  White  Devil. — Reports  in  Teheran.  The 
English  Courier. — Character  of  Persian  Government. — The  Green  Draw¬ 
ing-room. —  The  Shah’s  Album.  —  Persians  and  Patriots.  —  The  Shah’s 
Jewels.— The  “Sea  of  Light” . . . Page  168 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Shah.— The  Kajar  Dynasty.— Boxes  of  Justice.— Persian  Soldiers.— 
Their  Drill  and  Pay. — Military  Supper  in  Ramadan. — Jehungur  Khan. — 
The  Shah’s  Presents. — Zoological  Garden. — View  from  Teheran. — Dema¬ 
vend.  —Persian  Fever. —Persian  Honesty. —Europeans  and  Persians.— 
Caps  and  Galoches.— A  Paper  War.— The  Ottoman  Embassy.— A  British 
Complaint.— A  Turkish  Atrocity.— Persian  Window  Law.— English  in 
Bazaars.— The  Indo-European  Telegraph  Stations  in  Persia.— The  En¬ 
glish  Clergyman  in  Persia .  l^^ 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Teheran.— Snow  in  November.— Our  Servant,  Kazem.— Getting  a  Takht-i- 
rawan. — Abd  ullah,  the  Carpenter. — Preparing  for  the  Road. — A  Charvo- 
dar’s  “Beard.”— Black  Monday.— Trying  the  Takht-i-rawan.— Loading 
the  Caravan. — Servant’s  Merchandise. — Zood !  Zood .'” — Leaving  Tehe¬ 
ran. — The  Road  to  Ispahan. — Seeing  the  Khanoum. — Shah  Abd-ul-Azim. 
— Moollahs  on  the  Road. — On  to  Kinaragird. — The  Great  Salt  Desert. — 
Pul-i-delak.— A  Salt  River.— A  Negro  Dervish.— Salt-water  Soup.— A 
Windy  Lodging .  196 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Koom.— Approach  to  the  Holy  City.— The  Golden  Dome.— Koom  Bazaar. 
— The  Governor’s  Procession. — The  Itizad-el-Dowleh.  —  Mirza  Teki 
Khan.  —  Disgraced  by  the  Shah.  —  Order  for  his  Assassination.  —  The 
Shah’s  Contrition,  —  A  Visit  to  the  Governor.  —  A  Coat  of  Honor.  — 
Pipes  of  Ceremony.  —  Mesjid-i-Juma. — Tomb  of  Feth-Ali-Shah.  — The 
Shrine  of  Fatima.— A  Pretended  Pilgrim.— Reception  at  the  Mosque.— 


CONTENTS. 


11 


Not  allowed  to  Enter.— A  Temperance  City.— Takht-i-rawan  in  Bazaar. 
— The  Koad  to  Sin-sin. — View  from  the  Ghapar-khanah..... . Page  208 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Kashan,  Visit  to  the  Governor. — Kashan  Bazaar. — The  Governor’s  House. 
—The  Governor  on  Railways.— Tea,  Pipes,  and  Sherbet.— A  Ride  round 
Kashan. — A  House  pulled  down.— Present  from  the  Governor.— Presents 
from  Servants. — Manna. — Leaving  Kashan. — Gabrabad.— Up  the  Mount¬ 
ains. — A  Robber  Haunt.— Kuhrud. — In  the  Snow.^ — A  Persian  Interior. 

A  Welcome^ Visitor. — Kazem  as  a  Cook. — The  Takht-i-rawan  Erozen. 
— Pass  of  Kuhrud. — Soh. — ^‘The  Blue  Man.’ —Beauties  of  the  Road.— 
Province  of  Ispahan. — Moot-i-Khoor. — Ispahan  Melons. — Village  of 
Gez . . . . . . .  222 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Ispahan. — Approach  by  Road. — Suburbs  of  Ispahan. — A  Ragged  Bazaar, — 
Departed  Greatness. — The  Grand  Avenue. — The  Great  Madrassee. — 
River  Zayinderiid.— Pipes  on  the  Bridge.— Djulfa-by-Ispahan.— Russia 
and  the  Armenians. — Gate  of  Djulfa. — The  English  Missionary. — Mr. 
Bruce’s  House. — Armenian  Women. — The  British  Agent. — Church  Mis¬ 
sionary  School. — Armenian  Priests. — Enemies  of  the  School. — Visit  to 
the  Governor.— The  Prince’s  Carriage.— “  The  Eorty  Columns.”— The 
Prince’s  Anderoon.  — The  Shah’s  Eldest  Son.— His  Estimate  of  the 
Army. — Zil-i-Sultan. — His  Hope  and  Pears. — His  Court  at  Ispahan. — 
His  Carte-de-Visite. — The  Princess’s  Costume . . .  238 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Zil-i-Sultan. — Order  about  the  School. — Not  Responsible  for  Murder. 
— Telegraph  to  Teheran. — Reports  and  Rumors. — Excitement  in  Djulfa. 
—Closing  the  British  School.— Relapse  of  Pever. — Letter  from  the  Prince. 
—Persian  Compliments. — Prescriptions  by  Telegraphs.— A  Persian  Doc¬ 
tor. — Persian  Medical  Treatment. — Persian  Leeches. — The  Prince’s  Ha¬ 
kim. — His  Letter  of  Introduction, — His  Newspaper  and  Autobiography. 
— The  Prince  and  the  Province. — A  Son  of  a  Moollah. — “The  Sticks.” 
—How  Punishment  is  Given. —A  Snow  Torture.— A  Persian  Dinner¬ 
party. — Before  Dinner. — An  Englishman’s  Legs. — A  Great  Klian. — The 
Pirst  Course. — Les  Pieces  de  Resistance. — Going  Home .  256 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Ispahan. — Zil-i-Sultan  and  the  British  School. — Church  Missionary  Society. 


12 


CONTENTS. 


— The  “Crown  of  Islam.” — A  Ride  through  Ispahan. — The  Meidan. — 
Runaway  Horses  in  Bazaar. — “Embassador  Lilies.” — New-year’s-eve. — 
Severe  Cold. — Sufferings  of  the  Poor. — A  Supper  in  Ispahan. — Kerbela 
and  Nedjif. — Houssein  and  Ali. — Imam  Juma’s  Court. — Confiscation  of 
Christians’  Projierty. — Bab  and  Babis. — Execution  of  Bab. — Attempted 
Assassination  of  the  Shah.— Punishment  of  the  Conspirators.— Revenge 
of  the  Koran.— Bab  and  Behar. — The  Followers  of  Behar . Page  271 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Getting  out  of  Persia. — Northern  and  Southern  Roads. — Advantage  of  Rus¬ 
sia.— Russian  Goods  in  Persia.— English  Interests  in  Persia.— Mr.  Mac¬ 
kenzie’s  Plan.— Navigation  of  the  Karun  River.— From  Ispahan  to  Shus¬ 
ter. — A  Subsidy  required. — Price  of  Wheat.-^ — East  India  Company  s 
Survey.— Letter  to  Lord  Derby.— Baron  Reuter’s  Concession.— Traffic 
in  Persia. — Mules  and  Railways.— Difficulties  of  Construction.— Inter¬ 
course  between  Towns.— Estimates  of  Population.— Traveling  in  Persia. 
— Mountain  Scenery. — Plains  covered* with  Snow. — Persia  and  “The  Ara¬ 
bian  Nights.” — No  Old  Men. — The  Lady  and  the  House. — The  Greatest 
Power  in  Persia .  281 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Leaving  Ispahan.— “The  Farewell”  Hill.— Opium  Manufacture.— The  Tel¬ 
egraph  Superintendent. — Punishing  a  Servant. — Khadji  Josef’s  Tea-party. 
— Marg.— Kum-i-Shah.— The  Baggage  lost.— Neither  Ispahan  nor  Shiraz. 
—Ahminabad.— English  Doctor  robbed.— Doubt  and  Danger.— Yezdik- 
hast.— A  Vaulted  Chamber.— A  Black  Vault.— Telegram  from  Shiraz.— 
The  Abadeh  Istikbal.— A  Traveling  Pipe.— Display  of  Horsemanship.— 
Abadeh.— The  Governor’s  Present.— Bread  from  Teheran.— Letter  from 
Abadeh.— An  Ill -looking  Escort.— Khanikora.— Miserable  Lodging.— 
Soldiers  refuse  to  March.— Up  the  Mountains.— Houssein  Khan.— Deh- 
bid.— Shooting  Foxes.— Khanikergan.— Meshed -i-Murghaub.— Robbers 
about.— Persian  Justice.— Tofanghees .  292 

CHAPTER  XXL 

Classic  Persia.— The  Tomb  of  Cyrus.— Date  of  the  Ruins.— Passargardae.— 
Columns  of  Cyrus’s  Tomb. —Color  of  Ruins. —Neglected  by  Persians. 
— Kawamabad. — Takht-i-rawan  in  Danger. — Houssein  Khan  and  the 
Sheep. — Village  of  Sidoon. — Ruins  of  Istakr. — Situation  of  Persepolis. — 
Araxes  or  Bendemeer. — Staircase  at  Persepolis. — Darius  and  Xerxes. 
Cuneiform  Inscriptions.— Study  of  Cuneiform.- Chronology  of  Assyria.— 


CONTENTS. 


13 


Great  Hall  of  Xerxes. — The  Persepolitan  Lion. — Hall  of  a  Hundred  Col¬ 
umns. — Professor  Rawlinson  on  the  Ruins. — Tomb  of  Darius. — “The 
Great  God  Ormazd.” — The  Bringer  of  Evil. — Dios  and  Devils. — Errors 
in  Religion  and  Art. — Pedigree  of  Architecture. --Persians,  Medes,  and 
Greeks. — Origin  of  Ionic  Architecture. — Leaving  Persepolis. — Plain  of 
Merodasht . . . . . . . Page  314 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Kinara. — A  Eamily  House. — A  Troublesome  Cat. — Houssein  Khan  and  the 
Sheep. — Soldiers  and  their  Debtors. — Zergan, — Persian  Scenery. — A  Per¬ 
sian  Funeral.— Zergan  to  Shiraz. — Pass  of  Allahu  Akbar. — Snow-storm  at 
Shiraz. — The  English  Doctor. — Gate  of  Shiraz. — AGood  Persian  House. — 
A  Present  from  Firman  Firma. — Letter  from  His  Excellency. — A  Der¬ 
vish  at  the  Gate. — Meidan  of  Shiraz. — Visit  to  Firman  Firma. — Widow 
of  Teki  Khan. — Firman  Firma’s  Character. — Poverty  of  Persia. — Passion- 
play  in  Mohurrem. — Bazaar  of  Shiraz. — Tomb  of  Hafiz.— Odes  inscribed 
on  Tomb. — Translation  of  Hafiz.. — The  New  Garden. — Tea  in  an  Ima- 
ret . . . . . . .  334 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Literature  of  Persia. — Hafiz  and  Sa’di. — Contemporary  of  Dante.— Mr. 
Bicknell’s  Translation  of  Hafiz. — Consulting  Hafiz  as  an  Oi-acle. — Nadir 
Shah  and  Hafiz. — Hafiz’s  Fragments. — “  Tetrastichs  ”  of  Hafiz. — Sa’di's 
“Bustan.” — Sa’di’s  “Gulistan.” — Extracts  from  “  Gulistan.” — Sa’di’s 
Wit  and  Wisdom. — Gardens  of  Shiraz. — Slaves  and  Slave-brokers. — En¬ 
glish  Surgeons  and  Persian  Patients. — Influence  of  Russia. — Mr.  Thom¬ 
son  and  Mr.  Bruce. — Indo-Persian  Telegraph. — Major  Champain’s  Re¬ 
ports. — A  View  of  the  Neighbors. — Persian  Homes. — Government  of  Shi¬ 
raz. — Eeliats  in  Ears. — Attack  on  a  Caravan. — A  Vengeful  Government. 
—Cruel  Execution  of  Robbers. — Firman  Firma  superseded. — Taxation 
in  Persia. — The  Shah  and  Shiraz . . .  352 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Road  to  Bushire. — Yahia  Khan’s  Portrait. — ^To  Cinerada. — Last  View  • 
of  Shiraz. — Difficult  Traveling. — Khan-i-Zonoon. — A  Caravan  in  Trou¬ 
ble. — A  Cold  Caravanserai. — Murder  of  Sergeant  Collins. — Death  of  Ser¬ 
geant  M‘Leod. — Advantage  of  an  Escort. — Dashtiarjan. — “Eaten  a  Bul¬ 
let.” — Plain  of  Dashtiarjan. — Ghooloo-Kojeli  Pass. — A  Lion  in  the  Path. 
— Mr.  Blanford’s  “Interview.” — Up  a  Tree. — Wounded  Horse. — Kaleh- 
Mushir. — Mount  Perizan. — Kotul  Perizan. — View  of  Mian-kotul .  372 


14 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Mian-kotul  Caravanserai. — Tofiingliees  on  Guard. — Feuds  between  Vil¬ 
lagers. — Kotul  Dochter. — Traveling  on  the  Kotul. — The  Mushir-el-Mulk. 
— Lake  Famoor. — Encampment  of  Eeliats. — Ruins  of  Ancient  Persia. — 
Plain  of  Kazeroon. — Songs  of  Persian  Soldiers. — Kazeroon. — Anniversary 
of  Houssein’s  Death.— “Ah,  Houssein !”— Fanatical  Exercises.— Orange 
Gardens. — The  Sheik  of  Kazeroon. — Plain  of  Kazeroon. — Attack  on  Ma¬ 
jor  Napier’s  Caravan. — Village  of  Kamaridj. — Plain  of  Khan-i-Takhte. 
Hospitality  in  Persia. — Kotul  Maloo. — A  Difficult  Path.  Daliki  River. 
Arabs  in  Persia.— Palm-leaf  Huts.— A  Loop-holed  Bedroom.— Petrole¬ 
um  at  Daliki. — Barasjoon. — Rifle  Practice. — Indian  Officers  in  Persia. — 
Functions  of  Political  Resident. — Sowars  from  Bushire. — Caravanserai 
at  Ahmedy. — Arrival  of  Captain  Fraser. — The  Mashillah. — A  Wet  Day’s 
Ride.— Bushire . 387 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Bushire. — The  Residency. — Arab  Towers  and  Wooden  “Guns.” — Govern¬ 
ment  in  Persian  Gulf. — The  Arabian  Shore. — Arabs  and  Arabs. — The 
Sultan’s  Power  in  Arabia.— Oman  and  the  Ibadhis.— Pilgrims  to  Mecca. — 
Destiny  of  Rotten  Steamships. — Pilgrims’  Coffins. — Six  Hundred  Arabs 
Drowned.— Persian  Land  Revenue.— Collecting  Customs  Duties. — Trade 
and  Population. — Commerce  of  Bushire. — Cultivation  of  Opium. — Opium 
and  Cereals. — Export  of  Opium. — British  Expedition  in  1857. — Occupa¬ 
tion  of  Persia. — Persian  Army  in  1857. — Interests  of  England. — The 
Indo-Persian  Telegraph.  —  Persia  Ripe  for  Conquest. — Persia  and  In¬ 
dia .  406 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Tlie  Province  of  Fars.  — Memorandum  by  Colonel  Ross.  — Boundaries  of 
Fars.  — Government  of  Fars.  —  Six  First-class  Governments.  — The  Dis¬ 
tricts  of  Bushire. — Karagash  River. — Eeliats. — Nomad  Tribes  of  Fars. — 
Numbers  of  the  Tribes. — Eel-Khanee  and  Eel-Begee. — Chief  Routes  in 
Fars. — Taxation  and  Revenue. — A  Revenue  Survey .  421 

CHAPTER  XXVIll. 

British  India  Steam  Navigation  Company. — Crew  of  the  Euphrates. — Pil¬ 
grims  in  Difficulty. — Streets  of  Bushire. — German  Archaeological  Expe¬ 
dition. — Sermons  in  Bricks. — Leaving  Busliire. — Slavery  in  the  Persian 
Gulf. — Fugitive  -  slave  Circulars. — The  Parsee  Engineer’s  Evidence. — 


CONTENTS. 


15 


Ships  searched  for  Slaves. — Pearl-fisheries  of  Bahrein. — Anglo -Turkish 
Ideas. — Lingah  in  Laristan. — Bunder-Abbas. — Landing  at  Cape  Jahsk. 
— “Pegs”  and  Pale  Clerks. — A  Master  Mariner’s  Grievance. — The  End 
of  Persia. — Coast  of  Beloochistan. — Shooting  Sleeping  Turtles. — Harbor 
of  Kurrachee. — Kurrachee  Boat- wallahs.— The  Orthodox  Scinde  Hat. — • 
Paults  of  Indian  Society. — English  Ladies  in  India. — Intercourse  with 
Natives. — Unmannerly  Englishmen. — Exceptional  Behavior..... Page  428 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Bombay. — The  Serapis  in  Harbor. — Suburbs  of  Bombay. — Parsee  Dead. — 
Towers  of  Silence. — Hindoo  Cremation-ground. — Cotton  Manufacture  in 
India. — Report  of  Indian  Commission. — Neglect  of  Indian  Government. 
— A  Bombay  Cotton  Factory. — Hours  of  Factory  Labor. — Seven  Weeks’ 
Work. — Natives  of  India.  —  Expenditure  of  Indian  Government. — The 
Great  Absentee  Landlord.  —  Grievance  of  Cultivators.  —  Their  Enemies, 
tlie  Money-lenders.  —  English  and  Native  Equity.  —  The  Suez  Canal.  — 
Landing  at  Ismailia.^ — English  at  the  Pyramids. — Alexandria. — “Cleo¬ 
patra’s  Needle.” — Proposed  Removal  to  England. ^ — Condition  of  the  Ob¬ 
elisk. — Recent  Excavation. — Captain  Methven’s  Plan. — Removal  in  an 
Iron  Vessel. — Cost  of  Removal. — Egypt  and  the  Khedive. — Preparing  for 
Mr.  Cave. — Sham  Civilization. — The  Horse  -  trampling  Ceremony. — En¬ 
glish  en  voyage. — Egypt  and  Persia. — Customs  Officers  at  Alexandria. — 
Egypt  and  T urkey . . . . .  443 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

“From  the  Levant.” — Sunnis  and  Shi’ahs.— Turkish  Government  and  Turk¬ 
ish  Debt. — Fuad  and  Midhat  Pashas. — Not  a  “  Sick  Man.” — “Best  Po¬ 
lice  of  the  Bosphorus.” — Religious  Sanction  for  Decrees. — The  Council 
of  State. — “  Qui  est-ce  qu’on  trompe  ?” — Murad  and  Hamid. — Error  of  the 
West. — Precepts  of  the  Cheri.— Authority  of  the  Sultan.— Non-Mussul¬ 
man  Population.— Abd-ul-Hamid’s  Hatt.— A  Foreign  Garrison.— Hatt-y- 
houmayoun  of  1856. — Failure  of  Promises. — Fetva  of  Sheik-ul-Islam. — 
Non-Mussulmans  and  the  Army, — Firman  of  December,  1875. — Sir  Hen¬ 
ry  Elliot  and  the  Porte. — Conscription  in  Turkey .  458 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Islam  in  Persia. — Mohammedans  of  India. — Ali  of  the  Shi’ahs. — Abu-Bekr 
Successor  of  Mohammed. — Imams  of  the  Shi’ahs.— Eeza  and  Mehdee. — 
Religion  in  the  East. — Mohammed  as  a  Soldier. — War  with  Infidels. — 
Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages. — Stretching  the  Koran. — Mohammed’s 


16 


CONTENTS. 


Marriage  Law. — Status  of  Mohammedan  Women. — Women  and  Civiliza¬ 
tion. — Special  Privilege  of  Mohammed. — Mormonism  and  Mohammedan¬ 
ism. — Consequences  of  Polygamy. — Protection  of  Polygamy. — Moham¬ 
med  and  Ayesha. — Scandal  silenced  by  the  Koran. — Mohammed’s  Do¬ 
mestic  Difficulty. — Law  for  Men  and  Women. — Women  in  Mohammed's 
Heaven.  —  The  Mohammedan  Paradise.  —  Mohammed  and  the  Jews.  — • 
Birth  of  Christ  in  the  Koran. — Miracles  of  Christ. — English  Leaning  to 
Islam.  —  Mohammedanism  and  Christianity. —  Christians  of  the  East. — 
Moslem  Intemperance.  —  Wine  and  the  Koran.  —  Superiority  of  Chris¬ 
tianity . . . . . . . Page  471 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  L 

The  Vistula.— Warsaw.— French  Sympathies.— Partition  of  Poland.— Pass¬ 
port  and  Lt)cal  Kegulations.— The  Three  Imperial  Courts.— The  Turkish 
Capitulations.— The  Ideal  Pole.— The  Keal  Pole.— Religion  in  Poland.— 
Hotel  d  Euiope.  Statue  of  John  Sobieski. — Lazienski  Palace. — Russian 
Government. — Napoleon  at  Warsaw.— Grodno.— WiIna.—“  Tronfolger’s 
Namstag.” 

By  the  waters  of  the  Vistula  we  sat  down  and  talked  of 
the  historical  wrongs  of  Poland.  TV^e  were  on  the  lower 
bank  of  the  river,  near  where  the  bridge  of  latticed  iron 
connects  the  suburb  of  Praga  with  the  city  of  Warsaw. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  situation  of  the  capital  of  Rus¬ 
sian  Poland  is  picturesque.  It  was  a  beautiful  evening  in 
September  of  last  year,  and  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun  gilded 
the  stately  lines  of  the  palace,  once  that  of  Poniatowski, 
which  stands  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  water.  The  queer  old  houses  of  one  of  the  most  ancient 
parts  of  Warsaw  are  scattered  on  the  slope,  and  the  back¬ 
ground  is  filled  with  yet  higher  objects — the  lofty  roofs,  tow¬ 
ers,  and  spires  of  Polish  churches,  and  the  five  golden  cupolas 
of  the  Russian  Cathedral. 

Rafts  of  pine  timber,  cargoes  of  ruddy  apples  and  dark- 
green  melons,  float  before  us ;  the  river  has  nearly  the  width 
of  the  Thames  at  Putney,  but  nowhere  the  beauty  of  our 


18 


THEOUGH  PEKSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


metropolitan  stream;  it  comes  to  where  we  sit,  visible  afar 
in  its  course  through  flat,  sandy  lands,  a  silvery  streak ;  and 
as  we  mount  the  rising  ground  into  Warsaw,  we  can  trace 
its  flow,  burnisHed  by  the  dying  sunlight,  as  it  passes  away 
through  a  country  equally  destitute  of  charms  or  of  high  cul¬ 
tivation. 

Arrived  at  the  top  of  the  slope  leading  to  the  bridge,  we 
are  in  the  principal  street  of  Warsaw,  which,  indeed,  in  its 
entire  length  is  composed  of  two  streets  —  the  Krakowski 
Przedmiesci,  or  Faubourg  de  Cracovie,  as  the  French-loving 
people  of  Warsaw  call  it,  and  the  l^owy  Swiat,  or  Rue  de 
Nouveau  Monde,  as  the  more  fashionable  shop-keepers  at  once 
inform  any  stranger.  There  must  be  thousands  of  people  in 
Warsaw  who  would  be  glad  to  see  the  defeat  of  Sedan  and 
the  annexation  of  Metz  avenged  and  reversed.  There  is  an 
air  as  well  as  a  natural  gayety  in  the  manner  of  the  people 
which  makes  one  almost  ready  to  forget  that  the  broad  ex¬ 
panse  of  the  German  Empire  lies  between  this  city  and 
France,  to  which,  of  all  foreign  lands,  the  Polish  sympathies 
are  given.  With  the  exception  of  the  tram-way  cars,  which 
look  like  English  second-class  railway  carriages,  the  vehicles 
have  caught  this  gay  and  lively  air.  The  queer-shaped  omni¬ 
buses,  like  a  landau  and  small  omnibus  pressed  together,  are 
as  bright  as  red  and  yellow  can  make  them.  Occasionally 
one  sees  dashing  through  the  crowd  the  equipage  of  some 
Russian  offlcial,  the  flat-capped  and  petticoated  driver  hold¬ 
ing  the  reins  d  la  Husse,  one  in  each  hand,  steering  his  fast- 
trotting  horses  with  marvelous  skill  and  address,  and  with  no 
need  of  whip. 

There  are  some  populations  which  it  seems  impossible  to 
fancy  as  living  in  apparent  happiness  and  gayety  together 
with  their  conquerors.  For  my  own  part,  I  can  imagine  the 
Battle  of  Dorking  a  reality,  and  conceive  the  occupation  of 
London  by  foreign  soldiery ;  but  I  can  not  picture  to  myself 


WARSAW. 


19 


holiday-making  Londoners  in  the  Tower  of  London  by  per¬ 
mission  of  alien  sentries,  nor  merry  parties  on  the  hills  of 
Hampstead  and  Sydenham  and  Muswell  cracking  nuts  and 
jokes  as  they  looked  down  upon  London,  the  prey  of  a  for¬ 
eign  foe.  I  can  better  frame  for  the  mind’s  eye  the  debonair 
populace  of  Paris  disporting  in  the  Bois,  under  the  guardian¬ 
ship  of  Germans,  than  Berliners  happy  in  the  Thiergarten, 
while  the  IJnter  den  Linden  was  patrolled  by  French.  The^ 
Italians  would  be  lighter-hearted  in  such  circumstances,  and 
the  Poles  exhibit  their  affinity  of  race  by  all  that  the  traveler 
sees  in  Warsaw. 

The  partition  of  Poland  is  now  something  more  than  an 
accomplished  fact  —  it  is  part  of  the  settled  distribution  of 
the  Continent  of  Europe.  FTearly  a  hundred  years  have 
passed  away  since  Freedom  shrieked  ”  at  the  fall  of  Kosci¬ 
usko  and  of  W arsaw.  Generations  have  matured  to  which 
the  independence  of  Poland  is  but  a  dim  tradition — genera¬ 
tions  which  have  followed  the  road  to  comfort  and  prosperi¬ 
ty,  by  subservience  to  the  Russian  power.  Yet  the  rule  of 
Russia  has  been  harsh,  and  there  has  been  no  disposition,  at 
least  until  the  last  few  years,  to  conceal  the  character  of  the 
claim  by  right  of  which  Russia  rules  in  Warsaw.  The  insur¬ 
rection  of  fourteen  years  ago  is  outwardly  forgotten,  yet  in 
many  a  Polish  heart  there  must  be  rankling  memory  of  the 
cruel  time  when  the  ferocious  tyranny  of  the  Russian  Gen¬ 
eral  Mouravieff  evoked  remonstrance  from  England.  The 
older  rebellions  are  commemorated  in  Warsaw.  The  inso¬ 
lence  of  conquest  could  not  look  more  grim  than  in  the  blunt 
and  stunted  obelisk,  supported  on  lions,  which  was  erected  in 
1841  upon  the  Saski  Place,  in  memory  of  the  “loyal”  Poles 
and  of  “  their  fidelity  to  their  sovereign.” 

We  have  been  visitors  in  Paris  and  in  Rome  during  a  state 
of  siege ;  but  when  the  Germans  were  at  St.  Denis,  and  the 
army  of  Versailles  at  ISTeuilly — when  Garibaldi  was  in  arms 


20 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


at  Mentana,  and  the  newly  invented  Chassepot  had  ^\fait 
merveille  ”  upon  the  bodies  of  men  which  were  yet  unburied, 
it  was  easier  to  enter  or  quit  either  of  those  cities  than  it  is 
to  find  acceptance  in  time  of  peace  as  a  visitor  in  Warsaw. 
The  penalties  are  dreadful  for  those  who  receive  a  stranger 
without  at  once  giving  notice  to  the  police  of  his  country  and 
his  quality.  No  hotel  exists  without  a  passport  bureau;  and 
travelers  are  not  ‘‘  ushered,”  as  reporters  say,  into  their  apart¬ 
ments,  but  are  rather  “  interned  ”  to  await,  on  Polish  food,  the 
good  pleasure  of  the  Russian  police  as  to  their  liberty  within 
the  city,  and  the  time  of  their  departure.  If  their  passports 
do  not  bear  the  vise  of  the  Russian  Legation  in  their  country, 
they  will  be  required  to  spend  a  good  deal  of  time  in  a  shut¬ 
tlecock  existence  between  the  police -ofiice  and  their  hotel. 
They  will  be  teased  with  formalities,  which  of  course  a  well- 
informed  conspirator  would  easily  avoid. 

In  fact,  the  inhabitants,  temporary  and  resident,  of  Warsaw 
live  in  a  fortress,  under  special  license  from  the  police  and 
the  governor -general.  One  notices  in  the  streets  that  not 
only  for  convenience,  but  “  by  order,”  every  shop-keeper  must 
inscribe  in  Russian  whatever  name  and  business  he  chooses 
to  set  up  in  the  native  language.  If  on  the  right  hand  of  his 
shop-window  he  writes,  in  the  letters  which  are  common  to 
most  of  the  languages  of  Europe,  “Konicz,  Tailleur,  Cha¬ 
peaux  de  Paris,  la  Derniere  Mode,  Style  Elegante,”  he  must 
on  the  left  side,  or  elsewhere,  communicate  to  all  whom  it 
may  concern  the  same  announcement  in  the  semi-barbarous 
characters  of  the  Russian  language.  One  is  everywhere  re¬ 
minded  that  Warsaw  is  Russian,  not  Polish ;  that  Russian 
soldiers  form  the  garrison;  that  Russian  is  the  official  lan¬ 
guage;  that  the  Russo-Greek  Church  imparts  the  official  re¬ 
ligion  of  this  essentially  Roman  Catholic  Poland.  There 
would  be  little,  perhaps,  to  recall  to  mind  the  fact  that  here 
is  a  suppressed  nationality,  were  not  the  vital  difference  of 


THE  THREE  IMPERIAL  COURTS. 


21 


religion  ever  present  to  remind  the  stranger  of  tlie  history  of 
this  part  of  Europe. 

The  partition  of  Poland  is  the  fundamental  bond  of  union, 
drawing  together  the  alliance  of  the  three  imperial  courts,” 

who,”  in  the  language  of  the  Berlin  Memorandum,  “  believe 
themselves  called  upon  to  concert  among  themselves  measures 
for  averting  the  dangers  of  the  situation  ”  in  Turkey ;  who,” 
when  united,  are  absolutely  masters  of  that  situation,  and  can 
be  subject  to  the  interference  of  other  great  powers  only  in 
their  dissensions.  The  three  emperors,  who,  if  they  agree, 
can,  without  reference  to  any  other  power,  impose  their  own 
solution  of  the  Eastern  question  upon  the  world,  are  first  of 
all  united  in  that  transaction  Avhich  gave  to  Prussia  her  Ro¬ 
man  Catholic  provinces  upon  the  Baltic ;  to  Russia,  the  cen- 
trak district,  of  which  Warsaw  is  the  chief  city;  and  to  Aus¬ 
tria,  Cracow  and  Galicia.  'No  more  effectual  mode  of  insur¬ 
ing  the  extinction  of  Poland  as  a  separate  state  could  have 
been  devised ;  and  in  fact  Poland  has  ceased  to  exist.  There 
is  not  even  a  quiver  in  the  divided  limbs ;  Poles  must  be  Prus- 
sian,  Russian,  or  Austrian,  if  they  wish  for  a  successful  ca- 
reer.  He  who  climbs  toward  the  prizes  must  wear  the  colors 
of  the  sovereignty ;  and  so  it  usually  happens  that  acquies¬ 
cence  and  contentment  follow  conquest.  This  was  manifest 
even  in  the  short-lived  annex'ations  of  the  First  N'apoleon.  I 
have  heard  of  Garibaldi  that  he,  an  Italian  of  Italians,  was  in 
fact  born  a  Frenchman ;  that  in  Nice,  under  the  First  Empire, 
it  was  the  wish  of  prudent  parents  that  their  children  should 
talk  French,  and  that  the  tongue  of  Moliere,  rather  than  that 
of  Dante,  was  the  language  in  which  he  first  learned  to  speak. 

Poland  is  dismembered,  but  in  religion  she  is  united ;  and 
undoubtedly  the  preservation  of  peace  in  the  North  of  Europe 
has  some  assurance  in  the  circumstance  that  her  relisrion  is 
not  that  of  Russia  nor  that  of  Prussia.  Austrians  have  al¬ 
ways  had  a  hold  on  the  sympathy  of  Poles,  which  neither 


22 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


Russia  nor  Germany  can  attain,  in  the  fact  that  both  turn  to 
Rome  as  the  fountain  of  their  religious  faith.  Perhaps  it  is 
owing  to  tliis  communion  in  religion  that  the  rule  of  Austria 
in  her  Polish  dominions  has  been  milder ;  although  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  part  this  has  been  the  result  of  policy — of 
a  desire  to  engender  envy  on  the  side  of  Russian  Poland — so 
that,  in  the  event  of  war,  Austria  might  rely  upon  the  deten¬ 
tion  of  a  large  Russian  force  in  and  around  Warsaw.  The  Aus¬ 
trian  Poles  have  neither  Falck  laws  nor  a  schismatic  Church 
connected  with  the  Government  to  which  they  are  subject; 
and  in  a  conglomerate  empire,  in  which  there  is  unavoidably 
some  confusion  of  tongues,  the  Government  is  not  impelled 
by  that  irritating  desire  to  impose  the  official  language  which 
marks  the  rule  of  Russia  and  of  Prussia.  The  Tsar  is  doubt¬ 
less  aware  of  the  leaning  of  some  among  his  Polish  subjects 
toward  his  Austrian  brother,  who  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  pro¬ 
tected  in  his  ambition  upon  the  Danube  by  the  probability 
that  he  could  raise  revolt  in  Warsaw  by  promising  Poland 
autonomy  like  that  of  Hungary.  Indeed,  the  more  we  exam¬ 
ine  the  condition  of  Poland,  the  more  convinced  shall  we  be¬ 
come  that  it  is  the  centre  , upon  which  reposes  the  concord  of 
the  three  imperial  courts ;  and  that  but  for  the  present  settle¬ 
ment  of  Poland  we  might  have  less  ground  for  confidence  in 
their  pacific  resolutions. 

As  for  ourselves,  and  in  connection  with  the  politics  of  the 
East  of  Europe,  it  will  possibly  surprise  not  a  few  English¬ 
men  to  learn  that  for  the  peculiar  privileges,  “capitulations,” 
as  they  are  called,  by  which  our  intercourse  with  the  Ottoman 
Empire  is  regulated,  and  under  which  Englishmen  live  and 
carry  on  business  in  Turkey,  we  are  as  much  indebted  to  the 
Poles  as  to  any  other  people.  These  concessions,  the  existence 
of  which  has  always  proclaimed  the  infirmity  of  Mohammedan 
rule,  were  not  made  to  us  or  at  any  bidding  from  our  Foreign 
Office.  They  date,  as  we  learn  fi'om  Mr.  Hertzlet’s  compila- 


THE  TUEKISH  CAPITULATIONS. 


23 


tion,*  from  a,  time  when  England  W’as  not  a  great  power  in 
the  East.  Two  hundred  years  ago — in  1675 — an  extension 
to  British  subjects  of  privileges  granted  to  French,  Poles, 
Venetians,”  w^as  conceded,  “by  command  of  the  Emperor  and 
Conqueror  of  the  Earth,  achieved  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Omnipotent,  and  with  the  special  grace  of  Cod — TV^e,  who  by 
the  Divine  Grace,  assistance,  will,  and  benevolence  now  are 
the  King  of  Kings  of  the  W^orld,  the  Prince  of  Emperors 
of  every  age,  the  Dispenser  of  Crowms  to  nionarchs,  and  the 
Champion  j”  and  it  is  in  right  of  this  extension  of  privileges 
originally  granted  to  “  French,  Poles,  Venetians,”  that  our  con¬ 
sular  courts  exercise  judgment  and  authority  in  Turkey  and 
in  Egypt.  Every  historical  student  must  have  noticed  how 
the  use  of  such  high-sounding  titles,  such  pretenses  to  a  quasi- 
Divine  sovereignty,  fade  away  at  the  dawn  and  in  the  increase 
of  civilization;  but  perhaps  there  is  no  more  remarkable  ex¬ 
ample  on  record  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  a  comparison 
of  the  Sultan  s  style  and  titles  in  the  treaty  above  referred 
to,  with  the  simple  designation  of  a  successor  in  the  Caliphate, 
Abd-ul-Medjid,  in  the  Treaty  of  1856,  where  the  Sultan  is, 
in  French  fashion,  merely  styled  “  Emperor  of  the  Ottomans.” 

Having  thus  connected  Poland  with  ourselves,  especially  in 
our  relations  with  tlie  chief  of  Mohammedan  powers,  let  us 
turn  again  to  that  shadow  of  her  former  self,  which  is  seen  in 
and  about  her  ancient  capital,  of  which  the  history  mounts  to 
the  twelfth  century.  Those  who  were  young  children  thirty 
years  ago  had  at  that  time  perhaps  very  much  the  same  con¬ 
ception  of  an  ideal  Pole,  an  ideal  which  has  possibly  lingered 
in  their  thoughts  through  life.  My  notion  of  a  Pole  was  of 
one  who  passed  his  time  in  the  severest  practice  of  the  most 
noble  exhibitions  of  personal  honor  and  patriotism ;  of  one 
who  was  generally  in  chains,  often  in  Siberia,  who  had  a  most 


*  “  Treaties,  etc.,  regulating  Trade  between  Great  Britain  and  Turkey.” 


24 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


romantic  visage,  an  elegant  figure,  a  very  picturesque  costume, 
a  coat  all  frogged  and  braided,  a  brilliant  scarf,  very  high  boots, 
as  suitable  for  dancing  as  for  striding  over  the  corpses  of  his 
oppressors,  and  a  j)ainful,  oft-renewed  acquaintance  with  the 
knout,  as  wielded  by  Russian  executioners.  I  will  venture  to 
add  that,  in  my  own  case,  Mr.  Punch  is  responsible  for  per¬ 
verting  this  idea.  In  the  days  of  the  late  Lord  Dudley  Stuart, 
that  zealous  friend  of  Polish  refugees,  Mr.  Punchy  by  the  pen¬ 
cil  of  Leech  and  others,  gave  me  to  understand  that  a  Pole 
was  an  alien  creature,  who  inhabited  London  in  the  neighbor¬ 
hood  of  Soho  and  Leicester  Square,  chiefly  with  the  object  of 
stealing  the  hat  or  overcoat  of  paterfamilias  upon  the  front 
door  of  an  English  house  being  opened  to  his  petition,  and 
whose  loftier  vocation  was  that  of  making  love  upon  the 
smallest  opportunity  to  any  eligible  young  lady,  with  a  view 
to  an  elopement,  and  to  enjoying  after  marriage  any  patri¬ 
mony  which  might  fall  into  the  lap  of  the  bride.  W\\  Punchy 
it  may  be  observed,  is  never  very  kind  to  people  who  are  dis¬ 
satisfied  with  the  government  of  their  country.  But  let  that 
pass.  There  was  another  circumstance  in  the  life  of  the  Pole 
of  my  childish  imagination  which  has  long  since  been  dis¬ 
pelled.  I  thought  him  an  inhabitant  of  craggy  hills  and 
lovely  dales,  living  always  in  sight  of  high  mountains  and 
deep  forests,  a  country  like  that  in  which  dwell  the  insurgents 
of  the  Herzegovina,  like  those  countries  with  which,  from  the 
almost  invariable  success  of  insurrection  in  mountainous  re¬ 
gions,  it  is  perhaps  natural  for  untaught  intelligence  to  sur¬ 
round  the  ideal  insurgent.  The  Pole  is  in  fact  the  laborious 
cultivator  of  a  sandy  plain,  which  would  be  a  desert  if  it  were 
in  a  rainless  country  two  thousand  miles  south  of  Poland; 
he  is  pinched  and  poor  —  as  a  tiller  of  sand  is  likely  to  be — 
and,  to  say  the  truth,  he  is  very  ignorant  and  terribly  bigoted 
— a  neglected  child  in  education  and  a  priest-led  fanatic  in 
religion. 


EELIGIOK  I]S^  POLAND. 


25 


Standing  not  long  ago  beside  the  open  door  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  cathedral  of  ^^^^arsaWj  I  noticed  that  all  who  were 
neithei  s  nor  Russian  soldiers  uncovered  as  they  passed, 
while  not  a  few  prostrated  themselves  upon  the  damp  and 
dirty  pavement,  making  humblest  obeisance  to  the  distant  al¬ 
tar.  A  droschky- driver,  whose  restive  horses  and  nervous 
“  fare  ”  demanded  all  his  attention,  would  not  pass  but  with 
bare  head;  the  country  carter  doffed  his  cap;  the  porter 
dropped  his  load ;  even  the  school-boy  paused  to  make  his 
mark  of  homage ;  some  kissed  the  sacred  threshold  of  the 
door ;  all  who  had  leisure  seemed  to  enter.  Quite  a  common 
sight  in  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  of  Poland  is  a  prostra¬ 
tion  like  that  of  the  Moslems,  with  the  knees  and  forehead 
resting  on  the  |)avenient.  The  Papal  religion  and  national 
sympathies  have  always  been  close  companions  in  Poland,  and 
it  is  probably  true  that  many  a  fanatic  has  also  been  what 
is  called  a  rebel.  Looking  to  the  intensity  and  superstitious 
character  of  the  devotion  in  these  Polish  churches,  one  is  al¬ 
most  surprised  that  there  are  not  miracles  d  la  mode  in  War¬ 
saw.  Perhaps  the  Tsar  and  Prince  Gortschakoff  do  not  ap¬ 
prove  of  Roman  Catholic  miracles,  though  they  would  hardly 
put  the  seal  of  their  authority  to  the  French  couplet _ 

“  De  par  da  Eoy,  defense  a  Dieu, 

De  faire  miracle  dans  ce  lieu.” 

Warsaw  is  one  of  the  cities  which  “  have  been.”  It  wants 
“  cleaning  up,”  as  I  heard  an  English  lady  say  in  the  Nowy 
bwiat.  It  is  nearly  as  foul  as  some  parts  of  Berlin  in  regard 
to  open  drains  coursing  beside  the  pavements  of  the  streets, 
and  we  noticed,  not  as  a  sign  of  progress,  that  men  were 
watering  a  principal  thoroughfare  with  the  familiar  pot  and 
“  rose”  of  our  English  gardens.  But  the  people  who  invented 
the  polka  and  the  mazurka  are,  perhaps,  lifted  above  sanitary 
considerations  and  a  policy  of  sewage.  The  streets  of  War* 

2 


26 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


saw  will  certainly  match  those  of  any  city  of  the  world  for 
pretty  names.  Some  British  novelist  will  be  indebted  to  me 
for  suggesting  as  the  name  of  his  next  heroine  that  of  a  chief 
street — ^^Dluga;”  or,  ‘‘Freta,”  that  of  another  main  street. 
But  the  great,  new,  unpeopled  way  is  called  after  a  lady  who 
has  consented  to  become  English — ‘‘ Alexandrovna.”  Except 
in  the  houses  of  the  very  poor,  there  is  great  liberality  of  space 
in  and  about  Warsaw.  Of  the  hotels  in  Europe  older  than 
the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Hotel  d’Europe 
of  Warsaw  must  be  one  of  the  largest.  It  is  quadrangular  in 
plan,  and  upon  each  of  the  floors  there  is  an  utterly  unfur¬ 
nished  corridor  at  least  ten  feet  wide. 

The  gardens  in  and  about  the  city  are  pretty  well  kept;  I 
know  of  no  town  which  has  in  its  midst  a  more  pleasant  and 
ornamental  garden  than  that  which  adjoins  the  Saski  Place 
in  Warsaw;  and  the  park  surrounding  the  Lazienski  Palace 
is  more  wooded  and  undulating  than  Hyde  Park  or  the  Bois 
de  Boulogne.  This  suburban  palace,  in  a  most  charming  site 
between  a  lake  and  woods,  was  built  in  1754  for  King  Ponia- 
towski.  In  style,  it  is  an  Italian  villa,  and  the  decorations 
include  mosaics  from  Rome  and  Florence.  In  the  grounds, 
which  are  studded  with  summer-houses  and  pavilions,  per¬ 
haps  the  most  notable  object  is  an  equestrian  statue  of  John 
Sobieski  by  a  native  artist. 

If  an  Englishman  discusses  the  past  and  present  condition 
of  Poland  with  a  Russian,  the  latter  is  sure  to  introduce  the 
state  of  Ireland  by  way  of  comparison,  and  will  undoubtedly 
believe  and  maintain  that  the  manifestation  of  political  opin¬ 
ion  is  no  more  free  in  Ireland  than  in  Poland.  Apropos  of 
this  well-  worn  comparison,  the  sight  of  the  statue  of  John 
Sobieski  reminded  us  of  what  we  had  seen  a  few  weeks 
before  in  Dublin.  Some  days  after  the  termination  of  the 
inharmonious  proceedings  in  connection  with  the  O’Connell 
Centenary,  we  noticed,  in  riding  through  the  streets  of  Dub- 


STATUE  OF  JOHN  SOBIESKY, 


27 


lin,  an  uncared-for,  neglected  remnant  of  the  Home  Eule  pro¬ 
cession  in  the  shape  of  a  green  handkerchief  which  still  en¬ 
circled  the  neck  of  the  statue  of  Mr.  Smith  O’Brien.  Fancy 
what  would  happen  to  the  daring  enthusiast  who  should  vent¬ 
ure  to  tie  the  colors  of  revolutionary  Poland  around  the  col¬ 
lar  of  J ohn  Sobieski,  or  to  the  officer  who,  seeing  this  mani¬ 
festation  accomplished,  should  fail  for  one  unnecessary  mo¬ 
ment  to  remove  the  irritating  symbol!  What  a  rattle  of 
swords,  what  a  jingling  of  spurs,  there  would  be  among  the 
long- coated  Kiissian  officers,  who  are  omnipresent  in  War¬ 
saw,  smoking  always,  and  in  nearly  every  street !  What  a 
flutter  of  paper  there  would  be  at  the  head-quarters  of  Eus- 
sian  government,  in  the  city  palace  of  Poniatowski,  that  dull 
quadrangle  of  stone  which  we  looked  at  from  the  Pras:a  side 
of  the  Vistula,  where  the  Eussian  viceroy  lives  !  The  hapless 
man  would  soon  meet  the  forms  of  Eussian  justice,  adminis¬ 
tered  in  a  language  incomprehensible  to  him,  and  punishment 
proportioned  to  Eussian  estimate  of  his  offense.  I  can  see 
him,  as  I  have  seen  others,  marched  off,  chained  in  company 
with  base  criminals,  to  Siberia,  his  wife  and  children  being 
permitted,  if  they  please,  to  accompany  him  at  the  expense 
of  the  Government  to  that  inhospitable  region,  the  rigors  of 
which  can  not  be  understood  by  those  who  have  only  seen 
the  northern  plains  of  Central  Asia  during  the  transient 
brightness  of  the  brief  summer. 

At  W^arsaw,  in  a  back  street,  stands  the  hotel  in  which  the 
First  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  rested  in  his  flight  from  Mos¬ 
cow  ;  of  that  great  tragedy  we  were  reminded  again,  when, 
after  crossing  the  sandy  plain  from  Warsaw,  the  name  of 
Grodno  was  shouted  by  Eussian  railway  men.  It  was  dark 
and  late  when  we  arrived  at  W^ilna,  where  Napoleon  deserted 

the  remnant  of  his  army,  and  galloped  off  toward  France _ 

and  Elba.  Between  the  railway  station  and  the  principal 
street  of  Wilna  the  wall  of  the  town  intervenes,  and  high 


28 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


over  the  gate- way,  which  forms  the  main  entrance,  is  a  small 
chapel  dedicated  to  the  mother  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  an 
object  of  worship  quite,  in  its  way,  as  superstitious  as  was 
ever  paid  to  the  gods  of  ancient  Greece  or  Egypt;  with  the 
difference  that  this  guardian  of  the  town  is  in  herself,  and  in 
the  ornaments  with  which  she  is  surrounded,  an  exhibition 
of  art  in  forms  at  once  mean  and  base.  This  tawdry  shrine 
faces  the  street,  which  descends  rapidly  from  the  gate-way ; 
and  through  all  the  hours  of  the  day,  and  through  many  of 
the  night,  the  sloping  pavements  are  crowded  with  worship¬ 
ers,  gazing,  some  with  the  touching,  tender,  wistfulness  of 
anxious  maternity,  some  with  the  doubting,  half  -  despairing 
hope  for  spiritual  aid  to  be  rid  of  deadly  clinging  vice ;  some 
with  the  look  of  prosperity  upon  them,  whose  desire  is  evi¬ 
dently  to  make  the  best  of  both  worlds,  and  who  especially 
wish  to  have  the  savor  of  piety  in  this  world ;  others  with 
the  misery  of  neglected  old  age,  blinking  and  muttering  their 
formulas,  their  hopes  and  wants,  with  their  ideas  of  the  In¬ 
finite  subdued  and  compressed  within  the  lines  of  this  vul¬ 
gar  image. 

Our  Polish  driver,  like  every  one  else  of  the  same  nation¬ 
ality,  held  his  hat  in  his  hand  as  he  approached,  j^assed 
through,  and  descended  from  this  chapeled  archway.  With¬ 
in  the  town  there  was  a  curious  and  by  us  quite  unexpected 
illumination.  At  regular  intervals  of  two  or  three  yards, 
there  were  lighted  lanterns  placed  in  the  gutter  on  both  sides 
of  the  streets.  We  drove  a  long  distance  through  this  cu¬ 
rious  manifestation,  which  was  further  exhibited  by  lighted 
candles  placed  in  a  few  of  the  windows,  without  knowing  the 
event  which  it  was  intended  to  honor.  At  the  hotel,  a  Ger¬ 
man-speaking  waiter  replied,  ^^Tronfolger^s  NamstagP  It 
was  the  birthday  of  Alexandrowitch,  heir  to  the  throne  of  all 
the  Russias. 


DUNABURG. 


29 


CHAPTER  II. 

Russian  Railway  Carriages.  —  Russian  Ventilation. —Dunaburg. —White 
Sand.— Droschky  Tickets.— St.  Petersburg.— Exaggerated  Praise.— New- 
ski  Prospekt.— The  Hermitage.— Winter  Palace.— St.  Isaac’s  Church.— 
The  Old  Cathedral. — Tombs  of  the  Romanoffs. — Down  the  Neva. — Cron- 
stadt.— Droschky-driving.— The  Gostinnoi  Dvor.— The  Kazan  Church.— 
The  Russian  Language. — The  Road  to  Moscow. 

A  Rfssian^  railway  carriage  resembles  a  gypsy  wagon,  in 
having  a  stove-pipe  issuing  from  the  roof,  and  a  succession  of 
these  chimneys  attracts  the  notice  of  any  one  who  is  for  the 
first  time  traveling  in  the  dominions  of  the  Tsar.  Fortunate¬ 
ly,  the  stoves  were  not  lighted  on  the  mild  September  even¬ 
ing  in  which  we  set  out  for  St.  Petersburg — I  say  fortunate¬ 
ly,  because  the  Russian  notion  of  a  fire  is  to  enjoy  its  warmth 
without  ventilation.  Russian  climate  is  the  coldest,  Russian 
rooms  and  railway  carriages  the  hottest,  in  Europe.  Our 
train  staid  a  few  minutes  at  Dunaburg— time  enough  to  eat 
one  of  the  excellent  veal  -  cutlets  which  are  always  hot  and 
ready  for  travelers.  But  at  day-break,  when  we  took  coffee 
at  Luga,  in  the  raw  and  foggy  morning,  the  guard  needed  the 
warm  gloves  in  which  he  took  the  tickets.  One  notices,  as 
a  sign  of  the  severity  of  the  climate,  how  kindly  people  take 
to  gloves  whose  equals  in  England  would  be  unable  to  do 
their  work  with  their  hands  so  covered.  W^hite  sand,  gray 
sand,  the  face  of  the  country  is  covered  with  sand  in  the 
North  of  Russia ;  flat  sand,  hidden  for  the  most  part  with 
scanty  crops,  and  with  wide  forest  patches  of  fir,  the  sombre 
hues  of  which  are  occasionally  varied  with  the  more  tender 
green  and  the  silvery  bark  of  birch-trees. 


30 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


There  is  nothing  interesting  or  picturesque  in  the  approach 
to  the  Russian  capital.  One  looks  out  to  see  the  golden 
domes  and  spires,  and  is  not  disappointed.  There  from  afar 
shines  the  gilded  cupola  of  St.  Isaac’s  Church,  and  there,  like 
golden  needles,  glitter  the  spires  of  the  Admiralty,  and  of  the 
old  cathedral  in  which  all  the  greatest  of  the  House  of  Ro¬ 
manoff  lay  buried.  Soon  we  are  at  the  station,  where  the 
uninformed  or  incautious  traveler,  who  rushes  at  the  nearest 
droschky-driver  to  secure  his  carriage,  will  be  disappointed. 
They  manage  these  things  otherwise  in  Russia.  One  must 
look  out  for  the  official  on  the  steps  of  the  station,  whose 
hands  |re  filled  with  numbered  plates,  and  the  only  cab  the 
traveler  can  engage  is  that  of  which  the  number  is  received 
from  this  person. 

St.  Petersburg  has  been  often  described,  but  generally  in 
language  of  exaggerated  admiration.  It  certainly  possesses 
that  feature,  without  which  there  can  be  no  grandeur  in  town 
or  city — that  feature  of  space  which  we  are  slowly  and  suc¬ 
cessfully,  though  at  an  enormous  cost,  giving  to  London.  I 
should  say  that  the  clear  and  flowing  waters  of  the  Neva, 
sweeping  in  ample  width  through  the  city,  form  the  chief  ad¬ 
vantage  and  ornament  of  St.  Petersburg.  But  for  that  over¬ 
praised  pile  of  stucco,  the  Winter  Palace,  I  have  no  admira¬ 
tion  ;  and  as  for  the  treasures  of  the  Hermitage  Museum,  they 
can  not  bear  comparison  in  richness  or  interest  with  those  of 
more  Southern  cities.  The  streets  are  wide,  the  pavement  in 
the  roads  is  execrable,  the  shops  are  gay  only  in  the  Newski 
Prospekt,  and  there  is  no  more  antiquity  than  in  Boston  or 
New  York.  St.  Petersburg  is  not  a  handsome  city,  after  the 
manner  of  Vienna  and  Paris,  for  those  cities  have  at  every 
turn  the  results  of  high  civilization  and  a  genial  climate,  which 
are  lacking  in  the  Russian  capital. 

Before  entering  the  Winter  Palace,  one  must  visit  a  den 
somewhere  about  the  foundations — a  place  reeking  with  to- 


THE  WINTER  PALACE. 


31 


bacco-smoke — in  which  Russian  officers  sit  to  deliver  the  nec¬ 
essary  permission;  and  the  glories  of  this  florid  wilderness 
of  stucco  are  supposed  to  culminate  in  the  semi-barbaric  re¬ 
splendence  of  the  golden  boudoir  of  the  Empress— a  small 
apartment,  of  which  the  ceiling,  the  walls,  and  even  the  doors 
are  gilded.  No  wonder  the  Emperor  Nicholas  took  refuge 
and  comfort  in  his  plain  apartments,  the  furniture  of  which 
remains  as  it  stood  in  his  life-time.  So  entirely  is  the  status 
quo  preserved  that  his  majesty’s  cloak  and  hat,  his  sword  and 
gloves,  are  in  the  places  they  occupied  in  his  life-time. 

There  is  one  exception  to  the  buildings  of  St.  Petersburg 
which,  if  we  overlook  some  of  its  internal  decorations,  appears 
worthy  of  all  praise.  The  Church  of  St.  Isaac  is,  in  my  opin¬ 
ion,  the  noblest  building  of  modern  times,  and  one  of  which 
not  half  enough  has  been  said  in  Europe  by  way  of  eulogy. 
Perhaps  it  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  misplaced  adula¬ 
tion  of  Russian  palaces.  The  “  special  correspondents,”  who 
are  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  on  great  occasions,  have  their  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  ceremonies  of  the  court,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Russian  court  is  seen  to  great  advantage  by 
the  soft  glare  of  thousands  of  wax-candles.  It  is  unquestion¬ 
ably  true  that  the  Winter  Palace  “  lights  up  well,”  better  even 
than  the  White  Hall  of  the  old  Schloss  of  Berlin,  and  with  far 
finer  effect  than  the  comparatively  small  apartments  of  English 
royalty.  It  must  be  owing  to  the  effect  of  wax-lights  on  the 
brain  that,  in  accounts  of  St.  Petersburg,  the  stuccoed  gew¬ 
gaws  of  the  Winter  Palace,  and  the  veneered  lapis  lazuli  and 
malachite  of  the  Hermitage,  have  obscured  the  grand  and  sol¬ 
id  magnificence  of  St.  Isaac’s— a  building  most  worthy  of  the 
golden  crown  which,  with  vast  circumference,  domes  the  cen¬ 
tre  of  this  splendid  edifice,  which  has  been  completed  during 
the  present  reign.  The  style  is  Byzantine,  that  mixture  of 
Greek  and  Romanesque  architecture  which  is  perhaps  the 
best  suited  to  the  Northern  climate;  and  though  smaller  than 


32 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARA  VAX. 


St.  Paul’s  in  London,  or  St.  Peter’s  in  Rome,  St.  Isaac’s  is 
more  massive  in  construction. 

St.  Peter’s  has  some  monoliths,  pillaged  from  temples  of  the 
ancient  city,  but  none  that  can  compare  with  the  polished  col¬ 
umns  of  Finland  granite  which  support  the  four  porticoes  of 
St.  Isaac’s ;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  elevation  of  either  of 
those  world-famous  churches  more  admirable  than  the  bronze 
statuary  with  which  the  tympanum  of  each  one  of  the  pedi¬ 
ments  of  these  porticoes  is  adorned,  or  than  the  compositions 
which,  placed  upon  the  wings  of  these  pediments,  vary  with 
excellent  effect  the  outlines  of  the  church.  In  solidity,  the 
masonry  is  not  surpassed  by  any  ancient  work,  and  the  splen¬ 
did  interior  is  only  disappointing  because  its  permanent  dec¬ 
orations  are  somewhat  too  substantial,  and  its  religious  orna¬ 
ments  out  of  harmony  with  the  grandeur  of  a  building  in 
which  the  spectacle  of  crowds  smacking  their  lips  upon  the 
trumpery  portraits  of  persons,  some  of  them  obscure,  and 
sanctified  after  a  narrow-minded  life,  spent  for  the  most  part 
in  dirt  and  asceticism,  is  especially  ridiculous,  if  not  irrita¬ 
ting. 

The  church  in  which  the  predecessors  of  tlje  Tsar  are 
buried  is  comparatively  insignificant,  and  the  tombs  of  the 
emperors  are  simple  parallelograms,  built  with  plain  slabs  of 
white  marble,  with  not  the  least  attempt  at  artistic  style  or 
ornament.  The  young  soldier  who  acted  as  our  guide  in 
this  church  pointed  to  the  graves  of  Peter  the  Great,  of  Nich¬ 
olas  I.,  and  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  present  Tsar,  as  those 
most  interesting.  The  Romanoffs  rest  beneath  trophies  of 
battle  in  the  shape  of  flags,  including  those  of  most  nations, 
the  Union- jack  among  the  number  —  a  flag,  perhaps,  taken 
from  the  Tiger  when  that  unfortunate  vessel,  having  ground¬ 
ed  in  a  fog  off  Odessa,  was,  during  the  Crimean  war,  sur¬ 
rendered  by  Captain  Giffard  to  the  Russian  General  Osten- 
Sacken. 


ST.  PETEESBURG. 


33 


From  all  that  we  saw  in  steaming  down  the  Neva,  and 
at  Cronstadt,  I  should  suppose  Sir  Charles  Napier  could  see 
the  highest  pinnacles  of  St.  Petersburg  while  he  was  forced 
to  respect  the  range  of  those  ugly  fortresses.  Put  that  was 
in  the  unarmored,  muzzle-loading  days.  What  would  happen 
now  in  a  real  fight  between  floating  fortresses  of  iron  and 
stationary  fortresses  of  stone  it  is  not  for  me  to  say;  but 
at  least  this  much  is  certain,  that  the  conditions  of  naval 
warfare  are  entirely  altered  since  the  time  when  Sir  Charles 
made  his  famous  speech,  ending  with  “  Sharpen  your  cutlass¬ 
es,  lads,  and  the  day  is  your  own  I”  It  seems  that  in  our 
time  the  Shiver  my  timbers !”  of  Marryat’s  age  would  be 
as  little  out  of  place  as  the  Sharpen  your  cutlasses’’  of  1854. 
“  Ram  often,  and  ram  home  I”  is  more  likely  to  be  the  watch¬ 
word  of  the  future. 

From  the  front  of  the  Admiralty  House  in  St.  Petersburg 
one  can  look  down  the  whole  length  of  the  Newski  Prospekt, 
a  mile  and  a  half  or  so,  to  the  Moscow  Railway  Station. 
Among  the  many  cures  ”  which  English  physicians  now 
prescribe,  including  mud-baths  and  grape  cures,  and  the  dili¬ 
gent  drinking,  as  in  Russia  and  Germany,  of  mares’  milk 
fermented,  I  wonder  no  one  has  suggested  driving  up  and 
down  the  Newski  Prospekt,  or,  better  still,  the  back  streets 
of  the  Russian  capital,  in  a  droschky  as  a  “  cure  ”  for  a  slug¬ 
gish  liver.  Such  a  shaking  can  be  obtained  nowhere  else. 
The  ride  has  other  advantages  for  gentlemen  whose  hearts 
and  hands  are  free.  Convenience  and  obvious  custom  may 
be  pleaded  for  encircling  a  lady’s  waist  with  an  arm  when 
the  jangling,  rattling  vehicle  is  occupied  by  one  of  each  sex; 
this  mode  is  indulged  in  not  only  from  occasional  necessity 
as  the  only  means  of  keeping  a  light  body  on  the  seat  of  the 
droschky,  but  it  is  further  almost  obligatory,  on  account  of 
the  smallness  of  the  seat,  which,  though  often  occupied  by 
two,  is  probably  constructed  only  for  one  person. 

9!}: 


34 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


The  journey  down  the  Xewski  Prospekt  may  be  broken 
at  the  Gostinnoi  Dvor,  or  great  bazaar,  an  institution  in  Rus¬ 
sian  towns,  a  reminiscence  probably  of  Tartardora,  that  by¬ 
gone  state  of  Muscovite  existence  which,  it  has  been  said, 
may  easily  be  rediscovered  by  scratching  a  Russian. 

The  Gostinnoi  Dvor  of  St.  Petersburg  is  a  well-built  quad¬ 
rangular  arcade  of  shops,  of  which,  perhaps,  the  most  inter¬ 
esting  to  a  stranger  are  those  of  the  furriers;  for,  as  a  rule, 
there  are  but  few  native  products  or  manufactures  in  Rus¬ 
sian  shops,  or  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say,  few  possessing 
any  uncommon  interest  or  original  character.  There  is  plen¬ 
ty  of  bad  hardware,  that  of  Birmingham  being  excluded  by 
high  tariffs ;  but  where  there  is  seen  a  rich  display  of  taste 
in  any  of  the  St.  Petersburg  shops,  the  work  is  sure  to  be 
French.  Russian  garments  of  fur  are  little  suited  for  En¬ 
glish  wear,  because  of  a  radical  differences  in  the  usages  of 
the  two  countries.  In  England  fur  is  worn  partly  for  orna¬ 
ment,  and  consequently  the  hair  is  turned  outward ;  in  Russia 
it  is  always  reversed,  and  the  fur  concealed  beneath  the  out¬ 
ward  cloth  of  the  garment.  And  it  is  noticeable  that  the  fur 
mostly  used  in  England — seal-skin — is  not  met  with  in  the 
St.  Petersburg  bazaar.  If  any  one  wishes  to  put  as  much 
money  as  possible  into  a  fur-coat — a  “  shuba,”  as  this  indis¬ 
pensable  part  of  the  wardrobe  of  a  gentleman  is  called  in  the 
Russian  language — let  him  order  in  the  Gostinnoi  Dvor  one 
of  the  fur  of  the  ‘^blue”  fox;  it  will  be  worth  much  more 
than  its  weight  in  silver  rubles. 

Close  by  is  the  Kazan  church,  another  pile  of  stucco,  con¬ 
cerning  the  silver  altar  rails  of  which  the  guide-books  make 
a  terrible,  unwarranted  fuss.  As  these  famous  rails  are  short, 
hollow,  and  plain  as  a  pikestaff,  their  glorification  is  some¬ 
what  absurd.  That  which  is  much  more  curious  in  this 
church  is  the  collection  of  keys  of  surrendered  towns  and  the 
gilded  and  jeweled  screen — the  Ikonostas — standing  between 


THE  EOAD  TO  MOSCOW. 


35 


the  rails  and  the  sanctuary  of  the  church,  that  ecclesiastical 
threshold  which  no  woman  may  cross. 

But  we  had  better  leave  the  eccentricities  of  the  Russo- 
Greek  Church  for  the  present,  and  get  on  from  St.  Peters¬ 
burg  to  Moscow — a  journey  which,  owing  to  the  railway 
arrangements,  English  travelers  usually  make  by  night.  Ev¬ 
ery  one  who  has  w^andered  much  in  the  South  oi  Europe  will 
have  met  with  Russians  unable  to  speak  the  language  of  their 
country ;  and  from  the  number  of  these  it  might  be  inferred 
that  in  Russia  the  use  of  the  vernacular  was  exclusively  con¬ 
fined  to  the  lower  classes.  It  remains  true,  however,  that 
in  Russia  there  is  no  language  so  useful  as  Russian,  though 
from  Cronstadt  to  Sebastopol  the  traveler  who  can  speak 
German  is  never  in  great  difficulty.  By  many  of  the  higher 
classes,  and  at  a  few  of  the  most  fashionable  shops,  French 
is  spoken,  but  German  is  unquestionably  more  useful  in  trav¬ 
eling.  When  morning  dawns  upon  the  mail-train,  as  it  ap¬ 
proaches  the  more  ancient  capital  of  Russia,  there  is  very 
much  the  same  landscape  in  the  neighborhood  of  Moscow 
as  that  which  meets  the  eye  in  coming  to  St.  Petersburg 
from  the  west:  the  same  sand  from  which  laborious  peasants 
scratch  a  scanty  crop ;  the  same  forests  of  fir  and  birch  in 
which  princes  and  nobles  delight  to  hunt  the  grizzly  bear. 
All  is  flat  and  uninteresting.  One  shivers  in  the  cold  of  May 
or  September,  and  begins  to  comprehend  what  a  reservoir  of 
warmth  is  the  tossing  sea,  how  bitterly  cold  in  winter  are 
those  vast,  sandy,  waterless  plains,  which,  with  the  aid  of 
rain,  are  coaxed  to  cultivation  in  the  ISTorth,  but  in  the  ex¬ 
treme  South  of  the  Empire  are  seen  and  known  as  barren 
steppes,  yielding  nothing  but  a  sense  of  bigness  to  the  Rus¬ 
sian  Empire. 


36 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Moscow.  —  The  Native  Capital  of  Russia.  —  The  Kitai-Gorod. — Lubianka 
Street. — The  Kremlin. — The  Holy  Gate. — The  Redeemer  of  Smolensk. — 
Bell-tower  of  Ivan. — Church  Bells. — Church  of  the  Assumption. — Dean 
Stanley’s  Description. — The  Coronation  Platform. — The  Virgin  of  Vladi¬ 
mir. — Corner  Tombs. — The  Young  Demetrius. — John  the  Terrible. — The 
Tsar  Kolokol. — The  Poundling  Hospital. — Nurses  and  Babies. —  “Nes 
avant  Terme.” — Moral  and  Social  Results. — Cathedral  of  St.  Basil. — 
John  the  Idiot. — The  Lobnoe  Mesto. — Iverskaya  Chasovnia. — How  the 
Metropolitan  is  paid. — ^Virgin  from  Mount  Athos. — Tsar  and  Patriarch. 
— Motto  from  Troitsa. 

Moscow  is  unlike  any  other  city,  not  only  in  its  walls,  its 
towers,  its  cupolas,  its  churches,  but  in  its  streets  and  houses, 
its  hospitals  and  its  populace.  He  has  not  seen  Russia  who 
has  never  been  to  Moscow.  Of  countries  more  advanced  in 
civilization — of  constitutional  Spain  and  Greece — he  too  has 
seen  little  who  knows  but  the  capital.  Modern  Athens  is  a 
reproduction  of  Munich ;  and  to  see  the  chief  Spanish  town 
one  must  go  to  Seville,  not  to  Frenchified  Madrid.  The  hu¬ 
man  heart  of  Moscow  lies  within  the  walls  of  the  Kitai-Go¬ 
rod — the  Chinese  Town,  as  it  is  called — “  Kitai  ”  being  Chi¬ 
nese  for  “centre,”  just  as  the  Orthodox  and  Imperial  heart  is 
found  in  the  Kremlin.  The  encircling  walls  of  the  latter  ex¬ 
clude  the  town,  just  as  the  walls  of  the  Kitai-Gorod  shut  out 
the  suburbs,  where  wealthy  Moscow  lives,  sometimes  in  pret¬ 
ty  villas.  After  the  fire  in  1812,  which  did  not  efface  these 
girdles,  Moscow  dragged  herself  up  again  without  regard  to 
any  great  improvement  of  plan ;  and  the  streets  are  so  irreg¬ 
ular  that  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  is  to  lose  one’s  self  in 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  Kitai-Gorod,  in  which  nearly  all  the 


MOSCOW. 


37 


shop-keeping  and  the  whole  of  the  mercantile  business  of  Mosr 
cow  are  carried  on.  From  the  Kremlin,  or  Acropolis  of  Mos¬ 
cow,  which  stands  on  a  bank  rising  steeply  about  a  hundred 
feet  above  the  river  from  which  the  city  takes  its  name,  the 
ground  slopes  gently  through  the  Kitai-Gorod  to  the  Lubi- 
anka  Street,  from  his  house  in  which  Count  Rostopchin  an¬ 
nounced  to  the  terrified  people  that  the  Russian  garrison 
would  make  way  for  the  French  army.  In  passing  to  the 
Kremlin  from  this  street,  one  enters  the  “  Chinese  Town  ” 
through  a  gate-way  in  the  massive  wall  of  brick,  and,  if  he  is 
a  Russian,  uncovers  before  the  little  church  on  the  left  hand, 
which  is  one  of  those  curious  edifices  that  are  seen  nowhere 
beyond  the  pale  of  the  Greek  Church — a  tiny  building,  the 
roof  of  which,  with  eaves  that  scarcely  escape  the  hats  of 
those  who  are  passing  by,  is  tortured  into  the  most  unex¬ 
pected  shapes  and  angles;  here  a  little  cupola,  and  there  a 
crocket — a  confusion  of  the  architecture  of  a  pagoda  and  of 
a  Lombard  church,  with  tiles  colored,  red,  blue,  green,  and 
yellow,  in  tints  sobered  and  softened  by  age  into  a  curious 
beauty.  The  ornamental  little  windows  are  not  needed,  for 
the  diminutive  church  is  ventilated  only  by  the  frequent 
oj^ening  of  the  door;  and  as  for  light,  there  is  that  of  the 
lamps  and  candles,  which  are  constantly  burning. 

In  point  of  superstition,  I  see  no  superiority  in  the  lower 
classes  of  Russia  over  those  of  Spain.  With  the  latter,  their 
religion  is,  for  the  most  part,  symbolized  by  wooden  dolls, 
blackened  with  age,  such  as  Our  Ladies  ”  of  Atocha  and 
Montserrat.  With  the  Russians,  solid  images  are  not  per¬ 
mitted;  and  the  symbols  of  their  faith  are  generally  worth¬ 
less  pictures,  made  to  resemble  images  as  much  as  possible 
by  having  robes,  wrought  in  thin  gold  or  silver,  placed  over 
the  painting  upon  that  part  of  the  person  where  such  gar¬ 
ments  would  be  worn  in  life.  The  celebrated  gate  in  the 
wall  of  the  Kremlin,  to  which  one  ascends  by  the  slope  lead- 


38 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ing  from  the  Kitai-Gorod,  is  famous  because  a  picture  of  this 
sort — “  The  Redeemer  of  Smolensk,”  as  it  is  called — is  sus¬ 
pended  over  the  high  archway  of  brick.  With  an  opera- 
glass,  one  can  discern  a  representation  of  the  typical  face  of 
Christ,  decked  in  golden  garb  and  nimbus.  It  is  barely  per¬ 
mitted,  even  in  these  days,  that  any  one  may  pass  under  this 
archway  except  uncovered.  Jews  and  Mohammedans  gener¬ 
ally  find  some  less  sacred  portal,  and  the  Tsar  himself  never 
enters  the  Kremlin  by  this  “Redeemer  Gate”  with  his  hat 
upon  his  head.  The  tower  above  the  gate-way  — a  Gothic 
structure  upon  Italian  fortifications — is  suggestive  of  much 
that  one  sees  in  Russia.  The  traveler  who  expects  to  find 
grand  buildings  upon  the  Kremlin  will  be  grievously  disap¬ 
pointed.  They  are  interesting  because  they  are  national,  be¬ 
cause  they  are  unique  and  curious ;  but  that  is  all.  Highest 
rises  the  octagonal  bell-tower  of  Ivan  the  Great.  The  bells, 
as  is  usual  throughout  Russia,  are,  as  the  French  would  say, 
monies  au  jour ;  so  that  bell,  and  tongue,  and  beam,  and  ma¬ 
chinery  are  seen  from  the  ground,  with  no  intervening  wall 
or  window. 

The  importance  attached  to  bells  in  the  Greek  Church  has 
been  curiouslv  illustrated  in  the  Blue-book,  containinjr  “  Cor- 
respondence  respecting  the  Affairs  of  Turkey,  and  the  Insur¬ 
rection  in  Bosnia  and  the  Herzegovina.”  Consul  Freeman 
reports  that  orders  have  been  received  at  Bosnai  Serai  to 
construct  a  second  minaret  to  the  chief  mosque.  It  is  to  be 
much  higher  than  the  existing  one,  that  it  may  command  the 
Orthodox  church  and  steeple.  “  The  execution  of  this  work 
at  the  present  time,”  says  the  consul,  “  when,  notwithstanding 
the  proclamation,  the  Christians  are  refused  the  permission, 
so  ardently  desired,  to  have  bells  in  their  churches,  can  not  be 
regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  demonstration  of  Mussulman 
fanaticism  and  superiority.”  Sir  Henry  Elliot  communicated 
with  the  Turkish  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  reported 


CIIUECH  OP  THE  ASSUMPTIOX. 


39 


to  Lord  Derby  that,  before  granting  the  permission  to  put 
up  bells  in  the  churches — which  is  now  about  to  be  granted, 
and  which  may  create  some  soreness  on  the  part  of  a  portion 
of  the  Mussulmans — the  Government  considered  it  prudent 
to  authorize  the  erection  of  a  minaret,  which  should  be  hiffh- 
er  than  the  steeple!” 

In  Russia,  as  in  Rome,  there  is  a  saint  to  be  invoked  upon 
every  thought  or  purpose  in  life;  and  happy  is  he  or  she  who 
remembers  the  right  one  when  a  handkerchief  is  mislaid  or 
a  sweetheart  lost.  Every  one  knows  the  church  in  Rome 
close  to  the  basilica  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  to  which  pet 
lambs  and  dogs,  and  the  horses  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  car¬ 
dinals,  are  taken  for  the  blessing  of  their  patron,  St.  Antonio 
Abbate.  The  chapel  in  the  basement  of  the  tower  of  Ivan 
is,  or  ought  to  be,  frequented  by  ladies  about  to  marry ;  for 
it  is  dedicated  to  that  particular  St.  Nicholas  who  is  their  ap¬ 
pointed  guardian  in  a  country  of  many  saints,  and  where  the 
rude  forms  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  action  for  breach  of  promise 
are,  happily,  unknown. 

But  pass  within  the  commonplace  iron  railing  which  shuts 
off  the  tower  from  the  Church  of  the  Assumption,  enter,  and 
there  is  no  disappointment.  One  is  dazzled  and  charmed 
with  the  spectacle.  Let  us  hear  Dean  Stanley  (who  is  dis¬ 
posed  to  look  more  kindly  on  the  antics  of  the  Greek  Church 
than  the  present  writer)  upon  the  first  view  of  this  truly  re¬ 
markable  interior,  “It  is  in  dimensions,”  he  says,  “what  in 
the  West  would  be  called  a  chapel  rather  than  a  cathedral. 
But  it  is  so  fraught  with  recollections,  so  teeming  with  wor¬ 
shipers,  so  bursting  with  tombs  and  pictures,  from  the  pave¬ 
ment  to  the  cupola  [the  dean  would  not  have  been  less  ac¬ 
curate  had  he  used  the  plural  number,  as  there  are  five  cupo¬ 
las,  though  that  in  the  centre  may  be  called  t/ie  cupola],  that 
its  smallness  of  space  is  forgotten  in  the  fullness  of  its  con¬ 
tents.  On  the  platform  of  its  nave,  from  Ivan  the  Terrible 


40 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


downward  to  this  day,  the  Tsars  have  been  crowned.  Along 
its  altar- screen  are  deposited  the  most  sacred  pictures  of 
Russia:  that  painted  by  the  Metropolitan  Peter;  this  sent 
by  the  Greek  Emperor  Manuel ;  that  brought  by  Vladimir 
from  Kherson.” 

The  platform  to  which  Dean  Stanley  thits  refers  is  a  square 
dais  of  wood,  raised  by  one  step  from  the  floor  of  the  church, 
in  the  centre  of  which  it  is  placed.  The  church  has  no  long- 
drawn  aisles,”  nor  any  of  the  solemn  beauty  which  is  so  ad¬ 
mirable  in  the  dean’s  own  Abbey  of  Westminster.  The  inte¬ 
rior  is  a  blaze  of  color  from  floor  to  ceiling.  The  walls  are 
gilded  in  all  but  the  frescoed  representations  of  ‘‘The  Seven 
Councils  ”  and  “  The  Last  Judgment ;”  and  the  five  domes  are 
upheld  by  four  tall  circular  pillars  of  almost  unvarying  diam¬ 
eter,  which  are  richly  gilded  from  pavement  to  arch,  except 
where  they  are  adorned  with  quaint  and  highly  colored  por¬ 
traits  of  martyrs. 

“  Time  was,”  wrote  Cardinal  Wiseman,  with  a  well-pointed 
sneer,  “  when  it  needed  not  a  coronation  to  fill  the  aisles  of 
Westminster.”  Since  that  was  written,  we  have  seen  those 
aisles  thronged  with  eager  listeners  to  the  eloquence  of  a 
Wilberforce  or  a  Stanley.  A  coronation  in  the  Uspenski  Sa- 
bor  of  Moscow  is  probably  a  grander  sight,  because  of  the 
awful  power  with  which  the  new  wearer  of  the  Russian  crown 
is — not  invested,  but  invests  himself.  Possibly  Dean  Stanley 
was  present  at  the  coronation  of  Alexander  II.  “  The  coro¬ 
nation,”  he  writes,  “  even  at  the  present  time,  is  not  a  mere 
ceremony,  but  an  historical  event,  and  solemn  consecration. 
It  is  preceded  by  fasting  and  seclusion,  and  takes  place  in 
the  most  sacred  church  in  Russia ;  the  Emperor,  not  as  in 
the  corresponding  forms  of  European  investiture,  a  passive 
3’ecipient,  but  himself  the  principal  figure  in  the  whole 
scene ;  himself  reciting  aloud  the  confession  of  the  Orthodox 
faith ;  himself,  alone  on  his  knees,  amidst  the  assembled  mul- 


THE  VIRGIN  OP  VLADIMIR. 


41 


titude,  offering  up  the  prayer  of  intercession  for  the  Em¬ 
pire;  himself  placing  his  own  crown  on  his  own  head;  him¬ 
self  entering  through  the  sacred  door  of  the  innermost  sanct¬ 
uary,  and  taking  from  the  altar  the  elements  of  bread  and 
wine.”  The  Tsar  is  at  once  priest  and  king,  pretending  to  be 
that  which  the  Persian  poet  Sa’di  describes  as  the  kingly  of¬ 
fice — “  the  Shadow  of  God.” 

The  picture  of  The  Holy  Virgin  of  Vladimir  ”  is  saluted 
by  the  devout  as  the  work  of  St.  Luke,  and  by  the  careless  as 
bearing  nearly  fifty  thousand  pounds’  worth  of  jewels,  includ¬ 
ing  an  emerald  of  enormous  size.  The  faithful,  when  divine 
service  is  over,  walk  along  the  altar-screen,  on  which  this  and 
other  sacred  pictures  are  placed,  kissing  them  one  after  the 
other  with  marks  of  deepest  devotion.  These  and  other  treas¬ 
ures  were,  of  course,  removed  before  the  evacuation  of  Mos¬ 
cow,  in  1812.  It  is  quite  impossible,  without  the  aid  of  a 
series  of  colored  plates,  to  convey  to  the  mind  of  any  one 
who  has  not  seen  it  an  accurate  notion  of  the  interior  of  this 
church.  The  principal  architectural  feature  is  the  appropria¬ 
tion  of  about  one-third  of  the  area  to  the  sanctuary,  the  altar- 
screen  reducing  the  interior  space  from  a  parallelogram  to  a 
square,  in  which  the  four  frescoed  columns  stand  equidistant 
from  the  centre.  Ho  part  of  the  walls  is  unadorned  with 
paint  or  gilding ;  and  with  the  head  well  thrown  back,  one 
can  see  a  gigantic  face  of  Christ  painted  upon  the  inner  sur¬ 
face  of  the  central  dome. 

There  are  many  points,  and  those  of  great  and  significant 
importance,  in  which,  to  a  Protestant  mind,  the  Russian 
churches  might  be  improved  by  following  the  example  of  any 
mosque.  There  can  be  nothing  more  opposed  to  the  method 
of  Islam  than  the  constant  exhibition  of  pictures,  and  the 
monstrous  devotion  and  salutation  of  which  these — for  the 
most  part  daubs  —  are  the  object.  Dean  Stanley,  however, 
notices  one  matter  in  which  this  great  church  of  Moscow  has 


42 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAIST. 


followed  Oriental  custom — the  assiornment  of  its  four  corners 

O 

as  the  places  of  most  honored  sepulture. 

The  adjoining  church,  the  Cathedral  of  Michael  the  Arch¬ 
angel,  is  more  celebrated  for  its  tombs.  There  lie  the  remains 
of  John  the  Terrible,  and  of  his  murdered  son  Demetrius.  As 
we  entered  this  church,  we  noticed  that  all  persons  appeared 
to  direct  their  steps,  in  the  first  place,  to  a  low  tomb  not  far 
from  the  centre,  and  that  there  they  beat  with  utmost  rever¬ 
ence  to  lay  their  lips  upon  a  small  opening  in  a  golden  frame¬ 
work,  a  brown,  parchment  -  like  patch,  which  is  actually  the 
forehead  of  the  young  Demetrius.  This  prince  achieved  his 
present  position  of  saintship  and  adoration,  involving  neglect 
of  the  shrine  of  his  Terrible  ”  parent,  in  consequence  of  his 
having  been  murdered  by  order  of  Boris  Godunof,  the  Tsar 
of  that  turbulent  period  which  preceded  the  settlement  of 
the  Empire  by  the  election  of  young  Romanoff,  son  of  the 
Metropolitan  of  Rostof,  in  1613.  There  happened  also  a 
“  miracle  ”  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  his  sainted  remains. 
Above  the  shrine  his  portrait  hangs  in  a  massive  setting  of 
gold. 

Externally  the  architecture  of  the  buildings  of  the  Kremlin 
is  neither  grand  nor  pleasing.  It  is  possible  that  the  uncom¬ 
mon  aspect  of  the  gilded  domes,  of  which  there  are  five  on 
each  of  the  churches  above  referred  to,  and  several  on  other 
buildings,  has  led  to  the  general  impression,  which  certainly 
prevails,  that  these  plain  edifices  are  externally  remarkable. 
The  big  bell,  “  Tsar  Kolokol,”  claims  attention  as  a  fractured 
apartment  (it  is  big  enough  for  habitation)  in  bell-metal ;  and 
if  the  day  is  fine,  the  view  from  the  front  of  the  Palace  of  the 
Kremlin  will  command  admiration.  The  massive  Avail  is  at 
this  point  sunk  beneath  the  brow  on  Avhich  the  Kremlin 
stands ;  and  across  the  river,  in  the  foreground  of  a  very  ex¬ 
tended  prospect,  there  stands  a  huge  AA^hite  building,  the 
Foundling  Hospital,  to  Avhich  Ave  descended,  fortunately  upon 


FOUNDLING  HOSPITAL. 


43 


the  day  when  strangers  are  admitted  to  this  vast  nursery  for 
Russian  infants. 

To  those  who  know  any  thing  of  the  statistics  of  infant 
mortalityj  there  is  something  sad  and  ominous  in  entering  a 
huge  barrack  such  as  this,  devoted  to  the  care  of  willfully, 
deserted  infancy.  The  chief  officer,  a  Russian  exquisite,  who 
conducted  us  over  the  building,  spoke,  and  appeared  to  feel, 
like  a  showman.  As  for  the  inmates,  he  was  quite  unpitying. 
He  looked  for  our  deepest  sympathy  as  he  informed  us  that 
everyday  it  was  his  duty  to  walk  through  the  well-kept 
wards.  There  is  nothing  to  be  seen  like  the  dramatic  cradle 
in  which,  at  dead  of  night,  the  tearful,  frightened  mother  de¬ 
posits  her  new-born  babe,  and  reels,  swooning  with  terror  and 
agitation,  into  the  dark  background,  after  she  has  sounded, 
with  feverish  grasp,  the  knell  of  her  maternal  joys  and  anxie¬ 
ties.  In  Moscow  we  find  the  State  encouraging  the  increase 
of  population,  and,  with  the  least  formality  and  utmost  open¬ 
ness,  relieving  all  who  choose  to  bring  their  infants,  from  the 
burden,  the  cost,  and  responsibilities  of  parentage. 

Two  women,  friends,  as  they  said,  of  the  mother  of  the  babe 
which  one  of  them  carried,  entered  the  building  shortly  after 
we  arrived.  The  child  was  not  six  hours  old.  According  to 
the  usual  rule,  there  were  but  two  questions  asked — one  to 
learn  whether  the  child  had  been  baptized,  and  if  so,  by  what 
name.  It  was  not  officially  a  member  of  the  Orthodox 
Church,  and  therefore  was  only  described  in  the  books  by 
the  number  which  ifwould  from  that  time  bear  in  the  Found¬ 
ling  Hospital.  This  was  the  twenty -ninth  child  that  had 
been  received  that  day,  and  ten  more  would  probably  be  reg¬ 
istered  before  midnight.  The  baby  was  washed  in  a  room 
adjoining  the  place  of  reception,  dressed  in  the  swaddling- 
clothes  of  the  establishment,  which,  unlike  the  long  clothes  of 
English  infancy,  are  swathed  almost  tightly  about  the  limbs, 
and  carried  up  -  stairs  to  a  large,  long  ward,  where  it  was 


44 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


placed,  feet  to  feet,  with  another  baby,  in  a  curtained  cradle, 
about  the  centre  of  the  ward,  its  number  being  hung  round 
its  neck,  and  also  fixed  on  the  cradle  above  its  head.  Down¬ 
stairs  we  had  seen  a  number  of  robust  peasant-women  seek¬ 
ing  employment  as  nurses  in  these  wards.  The  pay  and  ra¬ 
tions  are  so  good,  and  there  are  such  substantial  advantages 
in  obtaining  babies  as  boarders  when  they  and  their  wet- 
nurses  leave  the  hospital,  that  these  places  are  eagerly  sought; 
and  it  is  said  that  a  mother  not  unfrequently  leaves  her  in¬ 
fant,  or  sends  it  to  the  hospital,  and  then  applies  for  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  nurse,  in  order  that  both  may  be  maintained  by  the 
State. 

The  inspecting  officer  informed  us  that  these  women  re¬ 
ceive  seven  rubles  a  month  and  a  gratuity,  as  a  reward  for 
good  behavior  while  they  are  serving  in  the  hospital;  and 
that  when  they  leave  it  is  usual  for  them  to  take  away  a  baby, 
to  be  boarded  out  in  their  family,  for  the  care  of  which  they 
are  paid  two  rubles  per  month.  If  the  children  are  healthy, 
they  are  usually  sent  out,  after  vaccination,  when  they  are 
ten  days  old.  Each  nurse  has  the  care  of  two  infants  lying 
in  the  same  cradle.  In  the  wards  the  nurses  wear  a  becom¬ 
ing  uniform,  with  caps  of  scarlet.  The  arrangements,  tem¬ 
perature,  and  cleanliness  of  the  wards  are  admirable.  It 
struck  me  that  a  little  noise  would  have  sounded  more  health¬ 
ful  and  natural  than  the  painful  silence  of  these  regiments  of, 
for  the  most  part,  dumb  cradles.  Especially  was  this  sad 
feature  noticeable  in  the  sick  ward,  where  there  were  many 
cases  of  ophthalmia.  But  the  most  curious  of  all  was  the 
ward  devoted,  as  the  foppish  officer  said,  to  “  les  enfants  oies 
avant  termef'*  those  which  had  come  prematurely  into  the 
world,  and  were  now  in  wadded  and  fianneled  cradles  of  cop¬ 
per — hot-water  cradles,  in  fact,  the  heat  of  which  was  main¬ 
tained  and  regulated  with  the  most  careful  precision. 

There  may  be,  even  in  England,  differences  of  opinion  as 


CATHEDRAL  OF  ST.  BASIL. 


45 


to  the  morality  and  advantage  of  an  institution  such  as  this, 
which  deals  in  the  manner  I  have  described  with  nearly  fif¬ 
teen  thousand  infants  every  year.  To  me  it  appears  to  be  an 
approach,  dangerous  to  the  morality  of  a  people,  to  that  form 
of  Communism  which  is  especially  to  be  dreaded.  It  re¬ 
wards,  at  the  cost  of  all,  the  deliberate  desertion  of  the  most 
sacred  duties  and  obligations  of  parentage.  It  tends  to  de¬ 
grade  women  by  relieving  them  and  the  men  with  whom 
they  associate  from  the  responsibilities  of  childbirth :  it 
places  upon  the  careful,  affectionate,  and  dutiful  parents,  in 
their  capacity  as  tax -payers,  the  burden  of  maintaining  the 
offspring  of  those  who  have  none  of  these  virtues.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  can  not  doubt  that  it  prevents  infanticide  in 
many  cases,  and  promotes  the  peopling  of  the  vast  wastes  of 
Russia.  But  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that,  while  thus  en¬ 
couraging  population,  it  is  indirectly  responsible  for  the 
deaths  of  thousands  of  infants,  because  it  is  on  record  that 
the  mortality  of  this  hospital  is  terribly  high,  and  that  scarce¬ 
ly  more  than  twenty -five  per  cent,  of  the  infants  committed 
to  its  care  lived  to  learn,  as  men  and  women,  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  their  childhood. 

We  will  return  to  the  heights  of  the  Kremlin,  from  which 
we  made  this  digression,  and  descend  through  the  holy  gate 
to  that  part  of ‘the  space  before  the  Kitai-Gorod  in  which 
stands  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Basil  the  Blessed,  a  church  far 
more  remarkable  in  its  architecture  than  any  other  in  Mos¬ 
cow.  It  is  said  that  when  the  First  Kapoleon  saw  this  min¬ 
iature  cathedral,  with  its  grotesque  irregularities  of  outline, 
he  ordered  the  commander  of  his  artillery  to  “  destroy  that 
mosque.”  But  indeed  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Basil  has  little  re¬ 
semblance  to  a  mosque.  It  is  perhaps  the  best  example  of 
that  queer  admixture  of  Indo  -  Persian,  Tartar  -  Chinese,  and 
Graeco-Byzantine  architecture,  which  may  fairly  be  called  the 
Russian  style.  The  Cathedral  of  St.  Basil,  of  which  only  the 


46 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


crypt  is  used  for  divine  service,  is  all  towers  and  domes. 
These  cupolas,  or  domes,  in  their  colors  of  red  and  green,  as 
well  as  ill  shape,  resemble  huge  inverted  onions,  the  upturned 
‘‘root”  finished  with  a  gilded  cross.  Of  the  eleven  domes, 
no  two  are  alike  in  superficial  ornamentation ;  one  or  two  are 
painted  in  bands,  which  will  certainly  suggest  the  vegetable 
comparison  above  mentioned.  One  is  indented  like  the  sur¬ 
face  of  a  pine-apple,  others  are  decorated  with  patterns  that 
are  decidedly  arabesque,  and  the  highest  of  all  is  elongated 
with  a  multiplicity  of  ornament  into  something  like  a  spire ; 
yet  perhaps  the  cupolas  are  not  the  most  curious  part  of  the 
church,  of  which  every  portion  is  colored.  One  is  hardly  sur¬ 
prised  to  find  the  maze  of  small  chapels  above  the  crypt  un¬ 
used  ;  they  are  too  intricate. 

The  whole  building  does  not  cover  more  ground  than  the 
Albert  Memorial  in  Hyde  Park.  Dull  red  and  green  seem  to 
be  the  prevailing  colors ;  but  the  church  is  so  bewildering 
that  one  can  hardly  feel  certain  about  any  part  of  it.  It  is 
just  such  a  church  as  one  might  suppose  had  been  built  by  or 
for  a  lunatic ;  then  it  appears  not  inappropriate.  The  riddle 
of  its  architecture  seems  to  be  solved  when  one  learns  that  St. 
Basil,  though  regarded  by  many  as  a  prophet  and  worker  of 
miracles,  was  probably  one  whom  in  these  degenerate  days 
we  should  call  a  harmless  simpleton ;  and  the  church,  fortu¬ 
nately  uninjured  by  the  French,  was  finished  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  sixteenth  century  by  a  Tsar,  who,  to  the  bones  of  Basil, 
added  those  of  John  the  Idiot.  In  religion,  the  Russian  peo¬ 
ple  have  a  tenderness  for  lunacy  and  idiocy  which  I  suspect 
has  now  and  then  taken  ultimately  the  form  of  canonization. 
John  the  Idiot  is  certainly  a  saint — a  religious  mendicant  who 
in  his  life-time,  we  are  told,  was  known  as  “Water-carrier,”  or 
“  Big-cap,”  because  he  was  ready  to  bear  others’  burdens  of 
water,  and  from  the  iron  cap  he  wore.  St.  John  the  Idiot’s 
cap  was  lost  during  the  Napoleonic  invasion ;  but  the  weights 


THE  IBEEIAN  CHAPEL. 


47 


and  chains  which  he  and  St.  Basil  are  supposed  to  have  used 
for  the  mortification  of  their  life  are  preserved  in  the  chap¬ 
els.  At  all  events,  their  reputation  is  fitly  enshrined  in  the 
most  bizarre  and  fantastic  church  in  Europe. 

Of  about  the  same  date  is  the  circular  rostrum,  or  pulpit  of 
stone,  about  four  yards  in  diameter,  with  a  surrounding  seat 
inside,  which  stands  in  the  large  open  place  near  the  Church 
of  St.  Basil.  This  was  the  platform  from  which  the  Tsars 
made  solemn  promises,  and  the  patriarchs  administered  bless¬ 
ings  to  the  people.  It  is  called  Lobnoe  Mesto ;  and  at  other 
towns  in  Russia  there  are  similar  tribunes.  Passinsc  this  un- 
interesting  monument  in  a  line  from  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Ba¬ 
sil,  and  entering  the  Kitai-Gorod,  one  is  in  front  of  the  princi¬ 
pal  entrance — the  Voskreueski  gate-rof  the  Chinese  Town.” 
J ust  outside  that  gate  there  is  to  be  seen  one  of  the  most  re¬ 
markable  sights  in  Moscow — and,  indeed,  in  all  Russia.  In 
no  other  European  country  is  there  such  an  exhibition  of  what 
is  called  religious  devotion.  Before  the  stout  wall  of  brick¬ 
work,  which  separates  the  outcoming  from  the  ingoing  way, 
is  the  Iberian  Chapel  (Iverskaya  Chasovnia),  architecturally 
nothing  but  a  large-sized  hut  of  stone,  or  a  platform  raised  by 
two  steps  above  the  road-way.  From  morning  till  night  this 
platform  is  thronged,  and  the  chapel  overflows  with  a  crowd, 
chiefly  composed  of  men,  pressing,  all  bare-headed,  and  all 
with  money  in  their  hands,  toward  the  narrow  door-way  of 
the  little  sanctuary. 

We  were  some  time  getting  into  the  chapel,  which  will  hold 
about  ten  people  abreast,  and  is  lighted  by  the  flickering  glare 
of  a  score  of  candles.  There  is  a  step  at  the  farther  end,  and 
the  wall  opposite  the  door  is  resplendent  with  shining  metal, 
except  where  the  object  of  this  extravagant  devotion  looks 
grimy  through  its  frame-work  of  gold.  On  the  left  side  of 
The  Iberian  Mother  of  God  ” — which  is  the  name  siven  to 
this  commonplace  daub,  supposed  to  possess  miraculous  pow- 


48 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ers  —  stands  a  long-haired  priest,  now  and  then  relieved  by 
another  long-haired,  deep-voiced  priest,  who,  hour  by  hour, 
in  the  name  of  the  jeweled  and  tinseled  picture,  and  with 
blessing,  consecrates  the  prayers  and  offerings  of  the  faithful. 

Only  the  face  of  the  Madonna  is  visible,  and  in  the  candle¬ 
light  it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  the  features  beneath  the 
dust  of  years.  But  not  a  minute  passes  in  which  the  rattle  of 
money,  falling  to  the  uses  of  the  Russian  Church,  is  not  heard, 
or  in  which  lips  are  not  pressed  upon  the  frame-work,  or  upon 
the  rudely  wrought  robes  of  beaten  gold,  which  conceal  the 
picture  to  the  neck.  Surely  no  lower  depth  of  superstitious 
degradation  was  ever  reached  in  connection  with  Christian 
worship  !  One  can  not  be  surprised  that  to  a  Turk  a  Russian 
seems  to  be  an  idolatrous  worshiper  of  pictures.  The  refining 
explanation  which  the  most  enlightened  fathers  of  the  Greek 
Church  could  offer  concerning  this  disgusting  exhibition  is 
precisely  of  the  sort,  and  differs  only  in  degree,  from  that 
which  might  be  offered  on  behalf  of  the  idol-worshipers  of 

more  Eastern  and  Southern  lands.  The  picture  has  no  his- 

\ 

toric  reputation.  It  was  brought  from  Mount  Athos,  that 
pleasant  wooded  hill,  peopled  with  monkish  drones,  who  so 
distrust  their  masculine  instincts  that  not  onlymay  no  woman 
enter  their  charming  territory,  and  enjoy  the  lovely  view  sea¬ 
ward  over  the  blue  Levant,  but  no  hen  may  be  brought  to 
their  table ;  though  it  is  not  on  record  that  they  refuse  eggs 
which,  if  hatched,  would  produce  female  birds.  About  twelve 
thousand  pounds  a  year  is  collected  in  coppers  at  this  chapel, 
and  from  this  sum  the  salary  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow 
is  paid.  Time  has  been  when,  in  the  ceremonies  which  pre¬ 
cede  Easter,  the  Tsar  of  Russia  used  to  lead  the  donkey  on 
which  the  Patriarch  of  Moscow  rode,  carrying  a  sacred  chalice 
and  a  copy  of  the  Gospels.  Nowadays  that  ceremony  is  neg¬ 
lected  ;  but  we  are  given  to  understand  that  the  Tsar  never 
enters  Moscow  without  assisting  the  revenues  of  this  distin- 


MOTTO  FEOM  TROITSA. 


49 


guished  ecclesiastical  officer,  by  praying  at  the  shrine  of  the 
“  Iberian  Mother  of  God.”  In  reading  Dean  Stanley’s  Lect¬ 
ures  on  the  Eastern  Church,”  I  am  disposed  to  wonder  at  the 
patience  with  which  he  tolerates  degrading  and  grossly  super¬ 
stitious  observances.  I  can  not  pretend  to  equal  moderation 
in  sight  of  these  things.  It  may  be  that  he  has  taken  to  heart, 
as  I  can  not,  the  archiepiscopal  inscription  near  the  famous 
monastery  of  Troitsa:  ^^Let  not  him  who  comes  in  here  carry 
out  the  dirt  that  he  finds  within.” 


3 


60 


THKOUGH  PEKSIA  BY  CAllAVAN. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Road  to  Nijni. — Rivers  Oka  and  Volga. — Nijni. — The  Bridge  of  Boats. 
— The  Heights  of  Nijni. — Lopachef’s  Hotel. — A  Famous  Landscape. — 
Prisoners  for  Siberia. — Their  Wives  and  Children. — The  Great  Fair.— 
The  Last  Bargains. — Caravan  Tea. — Persian  Merchants. — Buildings  of 
the  Fair. — Gloves  and  Furs. — Russian  Tea-dealers. — Mosque  at  Rijni. — 
Shows  and  Theatres. — Russia  vs.  Free  Trade. — Russian  Hardware. — Ar¬ 
ticles  de  Paris. — Melons  and  Gi’apes. — The  Governor’s  Palace. — Pictur¬ 
esque  Nijni. 

Though  it  is  only  the  20tli  of  September,  the  air  is  keen 
and  frosty,  as  we  drive  to  the  Moscow  station  of  the  Nijni- 
Novgorod  Railway.  We  have  a  sleepy  recollection  of  the 
comfort  of  some  hot  soup  at  Vladimir.  When  we  awoke  in 
the  morning,  at  no  great  distance  from  Nijni,  the  window- 
glasses  of  the  railway-carriage  'svere  covered  with  hoar-frost, 
and  the  ground  was  hard  as  iron.  We  soon  beheld  the  Volga, 
flowing  in  a  broad,  yellowish  stream  past  the  height  on  which 
the  oflicial  town  of  Nijni  stands ;  and  from  the  opposite  side 
of  the  carriage,  as  we  approach  the  buildings  of  the  world- 
famous  Fair,  w^e  can  see  the  lesser  stream  of  the  river  Oka  in 
its  course  to  the  point  where  it  gives  itself  to  the  Volga,  the 
site  of  the  Fair  being  upon  the  angle  between  the  two  rivers. 
The  sun  was  shining  warmly,  and  the  rugged  pavement  in  the 
main  street  of  the  Fair  was  ankle- deep  in  mud,  which  our 
rattling  droschky  threw  up  on  all  sides.  The  driver,  like  all 
Russian  coachmen,  had  his  coat  gathered  at  the  waist,  and 
sat  upon  the  ample  skirts  with  a  rein  of  rope  in  each  hand, 
“  p-r-r-r-r-ing  ”  his  horses  along  at  a  rate  which  would  be  pun¬ 
ishable  in  London.  It  is,  however,  done  at  Nijni,  though 
there  upon  the  road  are  crowded  carts  loaded  with  cotton, 


NIJNI-NOVGOEOD. 


51 


tea,  and  melons,  and  people  of  every  Eastern  nation,  many  of 
whom  come  from  lands  where  a  wheel  is  never  seen,  where 
merchandise  is  of  necessity  carried  by  mules  or  camels. 

What  a  thundering  the  scampering  hoofs  of  our  horses  and 
the  rumble  of  our  wheels  seem  to  make  as  we  pass  on  to  the 
planked  bridge  of  boats  by  which  we  must  cross  the  Volga 
to  reach  the  town  of  ISTijni-I^ovgorod !  From  this  point  the 
view  of  the  town  is  very  picturesque.  Close  to  the  bridge 
the  ground  rises  abruptly  to  a  height® about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet,  and  the  summit  is  crowned  with  the  chief  buildings 
of  the  place.  Overlooking  the  river,  the  united  stream  of  the 
Volga  and  the  Oka,  there. is  the  white-walled  Kremlin,  inclos¬ 
ing  not  only  the  governor’s  residence,  a  pleasant  garden,  and 
the  barracks  of  a  considerable  garrison,  but  also  the  principal 
church,  the  emerald-green  cupolas  of  which  show  in  pleasant 
contrast  to  the  unvarying  white  of  the  walls.  Along  the 
ridge,  and  from  the  banks  of  the  Volga  up  the  slope,  is  jdaced 
the  town  of  Kijni.  We  rattle  along  the  street,  past  the  stalls 
where  men  and  women  are  selling  huge  water-melons,  cut  in 
radiating  slices  at  something  less  than  a  farthing  for  a  pound- 
Aveight  of  the  fruit,  which  looks  delicious  in  the  rapidly  in- , 
creasing  heat  of  the  day;  past  tawdry  shrines  of  St.  Nicholas 
and  St.  Isaac,  before  which  long-haired  and  heavily  booted 
peasants  are  bowing  their  bare  heads  nearly  to  their  knees ; 
past  a  church  built  very  much  after  the  style  of  that  of  St. 
Basil  in  Moscoav;  mounting  always  and  at  last  through  a 
deep,  grassy  cutting,  Avhich  has  the  Kremlin  on  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  a  group  of  prettily  colored  villas,  the  palest  blue 
or  green,  soft  red  and  primrose  yellow,  all  Avith  bright-green 
roofs  of  Avood  or  metal,  to  the  high  table-land,  Avhere  we  are 
first  in  the  great  place”  of  Nijni,  and  then  in  a  wide  street, 
in  Avhich  is-Lopachef’s  Hotel. 

There  is  a  terrible  smell  of  stale  tobacco  inside  Lopachef’s 
closed  door ;  but  Ave  haA'e  only  to  choose  betAveen  Lopachef 


52 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


and  Soboref,  and  tlie  latter  is  Russian  vapor  bath  as  well  as 
hotel.  We  are,  without  doubt,  in  the  best  hotel  in  Nijni, 
though  there  are  no  carpets  on  any  of  the  floors,  no  sheets  on 
the  beds,  and  nothing  but  the  invariable  hors  oeuvres  of  a 
Russian  dinner — arrack,  uncooked  sardines,  caviare,  and  rad¬ 
ishes,  to  relieve  our  immediate  hunger.  There  is,  of  course, 
a  picture  of  a  saint,  all  but  the  head  covered  with  tinseled 
robes,  in  one  corner  of  the  dining-room ;  a  lamp  burns  beneath 
it,  the  light  hardly  discernible  in  the  brightness  of  approach¬ 
ing  noon.  Soup  and  cutlets,  with  something  more  drinkable 
than  the  alcohol  of  Russia,  are,  however,  soon  before  us ;  and 
in  an  hour  or  two  we  are  strolling  to  the  front  of  the  high 
ground  to  enjoy  the  famous  prospect — a  view  so  extensive  as 
to  be  limited  only  by  the  clearness  of  the  air  and  of  one’s  eye¬ 
sight.  From  left  all  round  to  right,  the  foreground  appears 
flat;  the  windings  of  the  Volga  and  the  Oka  can  be  traced, 
like  those  of  ribbon  on  a  vast  table,  flowing  through  miles  of 
sandy  plain,  varied  with  patches  of  pine  forest,  and  smaller 
areas  in  which  cultivation  has  reclaimed  the  soil.  The  steam¬ 
boats  move  like  elongated  dots.  We  can  trace  the  ground- 
plan  of  the  Fair,  which  is  more  than  a  mile  distant,  and  see 
its  myriad  life  moving  to  and  fro  like  that  of  ant-hills.  An 
unceasing  stream  of  carts  and  droschkies  pours,  during  the 
months  of  the  Fair,  across  the  bridge  of  boats.  The  scene  is 
one  to  be  remembered  in  company  with  that  from  the  Krem¬ 
lin  of  Moscow. 

The  usual  quiet  of  this  part  of  Kijni  was  broken,  as  we  re¬ 
turned  to  the  hotel,  by  the  tramp  of  armed  men.  They  were 
guarding  a  long  procession  of  prisoners,  who  were  making 
forced  marches  to  Siberia.  The  soldiers  slouched  along,  look- 
-  ing  hardly  less  miserable,  dusty,  and  travel-stained  than  the 
wretched  people  whom  they  watched  with  fixed  bayonets  and 
drawn  swords.  The  prisoners  marched,  some  four  and  others 
six  abreast,  between  the  files  of  soldiers.  Some  were  chained 


THE  GEEAT  FAIK. 


53 


in  couples,  others  tramped  alone,  and  all  were  apparently  of 
the  lower  classes.  There  were  three  or  four  hundred  con¬ 
victs,  as  nearly  as  I  could  count.  Very  little  talk  was  pass¬ 
ing  among  them,  and  the  soldiers,  with  sword  or  bayonet, 
rudely  kept  oft*  any  one  who  approached  within  their  reach. 
All  traffic  was  suspended  while  the  long  line  jjassed.  The 
prisoners  were  followed  by  twenty-seven  wagons,  loaded  with 
the  poor  baggage  of  their  families,  upon  which  the  women 
and  children  were  uneasily  mounted,  among  whom  lay  a  few 
elderly  or  sick  men.  These  women  were  the  wives  who  were 
willing  to  accompany  their  condemned  husbands,  and  to  set¬ 
tle  in  Siberia  at  least  for  the  term  of  their  husbands’  sentence, 
which  in  no  case  is  less  than  four  years.  If  the  wives  choose 
to  go,  they  must  take  their  children,  and  all  submit  to  the 
degradation  and  rigors  of  surveillance  and  imprisonment. 
The  pavements  of  Nijni  are  the  worst  imaginable;  and  as 
these  springlcss  vehicles  (which  were  not  really  wagons,  but 
simply  four  fir  poles  fastened  at  obtuse  angles  on  wheels)  jolt¬ 
ed  over  the  uneven  bowlders,  the  poor  children  were  shaken 
high  out  of  their  wretched  seat  at  nearly  every  yard  of  the 
journey.  Soldiers  with  drawn  swords  walked  beside  these 
cart-loads  of  weakness  and  childhood.  It  was  very  touching 
to  see  the  old  men  and  the  sick  painfully  lift  themselves  when¬ 
ever  they  passed  a  church,  and  with  the  sadness  of  eternal 
farewell,  uncover  their  miserable  heads  and  cross  their  breasts 
devoutly  as  they  were  borne  along  in  their  terrible  journey  to 
Siberia.  For  another  month  or  six  weeks  these  wretched  peo¬ 
ple,  or  such  of  them  as  survived,  would  be  traveling  to  their 
dreaded  settlement,  which,  however,  I  believe,  is  somewhat 
better  than  the  Siberia  with  which  our  novelists  and  play¬ 
wrights  have  made  us  familiar. 

A  pleasanter  sight  was  that  of  the  great  Fair.  ISTow  is  the 
time  for  the  last  bargains  in  the  greatest  Fair  in  the  world — 
an  international  exposition  half  a  dozen  times  as  large  as  that 


54 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN". 


which  in  1851  set  ns  all  thinking  the  millennium  had  arrived 
when  Prince  Albert’s  ideas  and  Paxton’s  plans  were  realized 
in  Hyde  Park.  What  shall  we  buy  ?  There  is  a  sharp-eyed 
tea-merchant  watching  our  movements,  hoping  to  get  rid  of 
yet  one  or  two  more  of  those  square  seventy -pound  bundles 
of  tea  piled  at  the  door  of  his  store.  The  tea  is  in  a  light 
chest,  which  has  been  cased  before  it  left  China  in  a  damp 
bullock’s  hide,  the  stitching  of  which  has  been  strained  and 
hardened  in  the  long  caravan  journey  over  Central  Asian  des-- 
erts.  Thinking  that  we  may  perhaps  purchase,  he  makes  a 
sign  of  encouragement,  and  forthwith  rams  an  iron  bodkin, 
three  feet  long,  and  shaped  like  a  cheese  -  scoop,  but  with  a 
solid,  pointed  end,  into  the  tea,  twists  it,  and  produces  a 
fragrant  sample.  He  is  one  of  hundreds  of  tea -merchants 
who  have  hired  a  stall  in  the  Fair ;  and,  in  compliment  to  the 
commodity,  the  roofs  in  this  part  are  built  pagoda-fashion, 
but,  like  all  the  I’est,  the  tea-stores  are  sheds  of  timber  and 
brick,  placed  together  in  long  parallel  lines,  sheltered  from 
sun  and  rain  by  a  rough  arcade,  upon  the  brick  pavement  of 
which  purchasers  and  idlers  pass  along. 

More  attractive,  perhaps,  than  the  tea-dealer  is  the  Persian 
opposite,  whose  dark  eyes  gleam  with  desire  to  sell  any  thing 
in  his  store.  He  has  carpets  of  soft  colors,  such  as  the  sons 
of  Iran  best  know  how  to  blend,  carpets  heavy  as  himself,  to 
cover  large  rooms ;  small  carpets ;  mere  handfuls,  on  which 
the  faithful  may  kneel  in  orthodox  Mohammedan  fashion  five 
times  a  day,  fixing  their  eyes  in  the  direction  of  Mecca.  He 
has  books;  here  is  a  copy  of  the  Koran,  bound  in  Tabriz, 
marble  -  backed,  with  yellow -edged  leaves,  like  some  of  our 
older  editions  —  a  book  which,  for  two  rubles,  any  one,  no 
matter  whether  his  faith  is  centred  at  Mecca  or  Jerusalem, 
anywhere  or  nowhere,  may  put  in  his  pocket.  This  bright¬ 
eyed  merchant  might  be  shown  in  London  for  the  Shah, 
whom  he  much  resembles;  and  if,  in  his  high- standing  cap 


BUILDINGS  AT  THE  FAIR. 


55 


of  black  lamb-skin,  his  grass-green  tunic,  and  his  scarlet-lined 
overcoat,  he  were  to  appear  at  Charing  Cross  surrounded  by 
two  or  three  of  his  own  traveling-trunks,  which  are  also  for 
sale,  by  way  of  luggage,  he  would  be  sure,  as  a  traveling 
“  sensation,”  to  achieve  legitimate  success.  He  presses,  with 
a  gay  smile,  upon  our  attention  one  of  the  chests,  which  is 
painted  bright  vermilion,  cross  -  barred,  like  Malvolio’s  legs, 
with  bands  of  black ;  but  he  has  another  of  green  and  black, 
and  a  third  of  yellow,  with  blue  bands  of  iron ;  and  if  one 
had  the  boldness  requisite  for  traveling  in  such  illustrious 
company,  these  trunks  would  certainly  obviate  all  difficulty 
as  to  recognizing  one’s  luggage  in  the  customary  and  truly 
British  scramble  at  any  London  terminus. 

We  see  at  a  glance  that  any  one  who  wishes  to  have  a  true 
idea  of  Nijni  must  get  rid  at  once  and  forever  of  any  notion 
of  an  English  fair,  by  way  of  comparison.  On  the  Volga 
they  mean  business,  not  pleasure ;  and  the  Fair  is  held  in 
buildings  infinitely  ruder  and  simpler  in  construction,  but 
quite  as  permanent  as  those  of  the  Lowther  Arcade.  For 
about  half  the  year  these  are  closed,  and  the  straight  lines  of 
the  parallel  streets  of  the  Fair  are  only  tenanted  by  sparrows, 
picking  up  the  last,  traces  of  the  great  gathering.  The  site 
is  flat,  but  in  Fair-time  the  roads  between  the  long  rows  of 
sheds  are  worn  into  rivulets  of  filth,  or  into  heaps  and  hol¬ 
lows  of  dust.  Not  one  man  in  five  wears  a  leather  shoe; 
the  rest,  those  who  do  not  go  barefoot,  are  for  the  most  part 
content  with  sandals  made  of  dried  grass,  bound  over  thick 
woolen  stockings  with  wisps  of  the  same  vegetable. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  genuine  barter  going  on.  In  one 
sense,  indeed,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  no  one  at  this  gath¬ 
ering  has  ready”  money.  Here  are  two  Persian  boys  bar¬ 
gaining  for  a  ring  which  has  surely  come  from  one  of  the 
fabriqiies  cVimitation  of  Paris.  The  process  is  long.  Twen¬ 
ty  copecks,  perhaps,  divide  seller  and  buyer,  and  it  may  be 


56 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


that  part  of  this  difference  will  disappear  in  talk  to  -  day, 
and  the  remainder  to-morrow  or  the  day  after.  Three  Tar¬ 
tars,  dressed  in  ragged  sheep-skins,  have  their  slanting  eyes, 
that  unmistakable  mark  of  race,  fixed  upon  the  gay  glories 
of  a  cotton  handkerchief,  which  I  hope  is  Manchester,  but 
fear  is  Moscow,  work.  And  so  it  goes  on  all  through  the 
busy  town,  or  commercial  camp,  which  is  called  the  Fair  of 
Nijni-N'ovgorod.  Not  rarely  does  a  bargain  take  three  days 
in  the  making.  What  Adam  Smith  calls  the  “  higgling  of 
the  market  ”  is  a  tremendous  business  at  the  Russian  mart. 
‘'Small  profits  and  quick  returns”  is  not  the  Nijni  motto. 
Prices  are  all  "fancy.”  It  is  not  easy  to  get  at  the  relation 
of  supply  and  demand.  The  dealer  asks  twice  or  three  times 
the  legitimate  value,  and  then  engages  in  a  wordy  duel  with 
the  purchaser,  in  which  by  -  standers  are  quite  at  liberty  to 
"  jine  in,”  as  a  Yankee  would  say.  * 

Out  from  his  perpetual  throne  upon  the  bergs  and  amidst 
the  fogs  of  the  North,  the  Ice-king  will  come  in  a  few  weeks, 
sealing,  as  he  passes,  the  land  and  the  rivers  of  Russia ;  and 
consequently  no  small  portion  of  the  work  of  the  Fair  is  di¬ 
rected  toward  providing  for  his  reception.  Thick  woolen 
and  leather  gloves  are  largely  'bought  by  the  hairiest  peasant¬ 
ry  in  Europe — men  whose  long  back-hair  and  beards  run  into 
and  seem  intermixed  with  the  wool  of  the  dirty  sheep-skins 
which  cover  them  from  head  to  foot.  All  these  gloves  have 
that  well-known  peculiarity  of  shape  (common  also  to  the 
gloves  of  English  infancy)  which  Charles  Dickens  so  happily 
described  as  made  up  with  a  parlor  for  the  thumb  and  a 
common  tap-room  for  the  fingers.  Of  course  there  are  furs 
— piles  upon  piles  of  fur — but  this  article  of  dress  or  orna¬ 
ment  is  not  cheap  at  Nijni,  and  the  kinds  of  fur  most  worn 
in  England  are  not  to  be  seen.  There  is  no  seal -skin,  and 
but  little  sable  or  ermine.  Black  fox  and  silver  fox,  wolf 
and  bear  skin,  and  commoner  furs  for  lining,  are  much  sold. 


RUSSIA]^  TEA-DEALERS. 


57 


Desperately  anxious  upon  these  last  September  days  of  the 
Fair,  which  opens  in  May,  are  the  dealers  to  sell  their  re¬ 
maining  stock  of  cloth  coats  lined  with  fur — the  shuba — so 
much  worn  in  Russia.  The  prices  rise  from  eight  pounds  to 
one  hundred  pounds,  according  to  the  sort  of  fur. 

A  Russian  will  be  ’warm,  at  any  sacrifice  of  elegance  in  his 
person  or  of  ventilation  in  his  home;  but  he  has  another  re¬ 
quirement  not  less  imperative — he  must  have  in  his  ill-ven¬ 
tilated  house  a  tinseled  picture  of  the  head  of  Christ,  or  of 
some  saint ;  if  a  saint,  then  it  is  generally  the  one  after  whom 
he  is  named.  There  is  not  a  baptismal  name  in  common  use 
throughout  Russia  which  is  not  that  of  a  saint — which  has 
not  a  saint  to  father  it;  and  so  it  happens  that  when  all  the 
Alexanders  or  Alexises  in  a  village  celebrate,  with  all  the  ar¬ 
rack  they  can  get,  the  return  of  their  name-day,  a  sort  of 
brotherhood  often  becomes  established  between  people  who 
have  received  the  same  name  at  the  ecclesiastical  font.  A 
roughly  built  country  cart  has  just  passed  carrying  off  a  pur¬ 
chase,  a  large  head  of  Christ,  the  c'onventional  face  looking 
out  from  a  setting  of  tawdry  ormolu,  the  whole  framed  in 
vulgar,  gaudy  gilt.  Two  men  are  holding  the  frame,  to  keep 
it  from  contact  with  the  sides  of  the  cart,  which  rumbles  and 
tumbles  along  the  uneven  way;  and  as  it  goes,  peasants  and 
dealers  uncover  their  heads  and  make  most  reverently  the 
sign  of  the  cross  upon  their  bodies  before  this  article  of  mer¬ 
chandise. 

It  is  ten  o’clock,  and  here  are  two  men  swinging  back  the 
iron  doors  of  their  shed  to  begin  business  for  the  clay.  They 
are  Russian  tea-dealers.  With  feet  placed  close  together, 
with  cap  in  hand,  they  bow  in  deep  obeisance  three  times  to¬ 
ward  the  nearest  church,  crossing  themselves,  as  they  bend, 
before  they  unfasten  the  padlocks ;  and  then,  on  gaining  the 
floor  of  their  shops,  they  repeat  the  religious  bowing,  which 
in  the  Greek  Church  never  takes  the  form  of  genuflection, 

3* 


58 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


the  knees,  in  fact,  being  almost  the  only  joint  that  is  not 
bent. 

Last  summer  we  met  with  a  cottier  farmer  in  Ireland  who 
had  given  two  hundred  pounds  toward  the  building  fund  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  chapel,  which  was  being  erected  in  the  par¬ 
ish  wherein  he  lived.  The  sum  was  immense  for  a  man  in 
his  position,  and  people  were  naturally  inquisitive  on  the  sub¬ 
ject.  To  one  who  asked  why  he  had  subscribed  so  largely 
he  said,  I  want  to  have  a  claim  on  the  Almighty and  I  am 
sure  I  do  these  Russians  no  wrong  in  believing  that  these  os¬ 
tentatious  shop  prayers  of  theirs  are  in  part  a  demonstration, 
and  in  part  concerned  with  averting  the  influence  of  the  devil 
of  the  Greek  Church  from  their  till. 

The  religious  difiiculty  ”  is  nicely  settled  at  ^Tijni.  In  the 
interest  of  Russian  trade,  the  Crescent  is  lifted  to  the  skies 
high  as  the  Cross.  Raised  somewhat  upon  an  artificial  mound, 
near  the  centre  of  the  Fair,  is  a  mosque,  probably  the  most 
Northern  mosque  in  Europe.  In  the  small  court-yard,  a  stal¬ 
wart  moollah  was  making  signs  of  direction  to  a  Tartar 
dwarf — a  hunchback,  and  in  rags ;  a  deaf-mute,  whose  glit¬ 
tering*  eyes  fixed  greedily  upon  us  as  we  advanced  to  visit  the 
mosque.  Perhaps  the  moollah  in  charge  had  not  done  well 
at  the  Fair ;  he  looked  sad  as  we  walked  with  him  over  the 
floor  of  his  church,  which  was  covered  with  clean  matting,  on 
which  a  few  of  the  commonest  sort  of  Persian  carpets  were 
laid.  Probably  he  was  sad  at  the  thought  that  the  glories 
and  the  work  of  the  great  Fair  were  nearly  over. 

One  finds  no  trace  whatever,  on  entering  a  mosque,  of  the 
anti-human  principles  which  are  taught  there  from  the  words 
of  the  Koran.  In  the  air  of  a  mosque  there  is  no  taint  of 
vengeance,  of  slavery,  of  polygamy,  of  deadly  animosity  to¬ 
ward  dissent.  One  contrasts  rather  the  purity  and  simplicity 
of  the  place  of  worship,  the  grateful  absence  of  any  stupid  at¬ 
tempt  to  personify  the  Infinite  in  mortal  forms,  with  the  de- 


SHOWS  AND  THEATRE. 


59 


grading  and  meretricious  attractions  of  a  Greek  or  Roman 
church,  with  the  trumpery,  vulgar  images  of  saints  and  vir- 
,  gins,  images  of  persons,  some  not  only  without  real  claim  to 
reverence,  but  rather  deserving,  as  repressors  of  civilization, 
the  forgetfulness,  if  not  the  contempt,  of  mankind;  objects 
of  conventional  regard,  which  not  one  worshiper  in  ten  thou¬ 
sand  could  explain  or  account  for  by  any  well-informed  state¬ 
ment  of  the  saint’s  claim.  The  mosque  of  Nijni  was,  like  all 
mosques  throughout  the  world,  a  temple  without  trace  of  sect. 
We  passed  from  it  into  the  adjacent  church  for  the  people  of 
the  Fair  who  are  of  the  orthodox  Russian  faith ;  and  there  a 
priest  in  sumptuous  raiment  was  bringing  bass  notes  appar¬ 
ently  from  somewhere  about  the  region  of  the  stomach,  after 
the  most  admired  manner  of  priests  of  that  communion,  and, 
as  he  paused  to  take  breath,  kissing  pictures  on  the  screen, 
gluing  his  worship  and  praise  with  his  lips  to  the  frame¬ 
work  of  these  daubs,  and  to  the  sham  jewels  in  the  cover  of 
the  copy  of  the  Gospels  which  lay  before  him.  Over  the  way 
stood  an  Armenian  church,  a  nearer  approximation  to  Rome. 
No  limitation  to  pictures  with  flat  robes  of  gold  or  silver  in 
that  place  of  worship  !  There  they  may  go  the  whole  animal, 
so  far  as  images  are  concerned. 

Not  distant  from  the  churches  is  the  principal  theatre  of 
the  Fair,  a  wooden  building,  in  which,  at  the  time  of  our 
visit,  one  might  see — so  the  bills  said — the  unapproachable 
Hickin  Family.”  These  were  the  only  words  in  English  (and 
perhaps  Mr.  Hickin  would  tell  us  these  words  are  “Ameri¬ 
can  ”)  which  we  observed  within  the  Fair.  There  was,  how¬ 
ever,  one  unquestionable  exception.  The  heap  of  “Three- 
cord  Knitting”  on  a  stall  near  the  governor’s  house  must 
surely  have  been  of  English  manufacture. 

If  I  remember  rightly,  Mr.  Cobden  made  a  tour  in  Russia, 
and  then  formed  no  very  high  opinion  of  the  solidarity  or 
strength  of  the  Empire,  especially  for  external  warfare.  I 


CO 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


never  heard  that  he  visited  N^ijui,  and  I  hardly  think  it  pos¬ 
sible  that  he  could  have  been  there  in  the  Fair-time,  without 
leaving  such  a  record  of  his  visit  as  it  would  not  have  been 
easy  to  forget.  Had  he  been  there,  his  patriotic  soul  would 
surely  have  poured  over  with  contempt  for  the  commercial 
policy  of  Russia,  and  with  longing  for  the  universal  reign  of 
free  trade.  We  passed  scores  of  stalls  covered  with  hard¬ 
ware  of  all  sorts — knives,  padlocks,  door -locks,  tools,  nails, 
household  cutlery  and  utensils — all  of  miserably  inferior  man¬ 
ufacture,  the  blades  and  fastenings  bearing  the  mark  of  War¬ 
saw,  but  most  often  of  Moscow,  or  some  other  Russian  town. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  these  useful  articles  had  passed  within 
the  four  preceding  months,  and  were  passing  daily  during 
our  visit,  from  Nijni  into  Asia.  What  a  trade  might  Mr. 
Bright’s  constituents  do  in  this  way  if  it  were  not  for  the 
prohibitory  rates  of  the  Russian  tariff !  and  how  soon  would 
Russians,  of  Eurojoe  and  of  Asia,  learn  to  appreciate  the  dif¬ 
ference  between  a  Sheffield  or  Birmingham  blade  and  the 
home-made  knives  of  coarse  iron,  wdiich  are  forced  upon 
them  at  a  price  for  which  they  could  obtain  English  manu¬ 
facture,  from  a  mistaken  belief  that  this  provision  of  inferior 
articles  to  the  many  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  is  advanta¬ 
geous  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  Russian  Empire !  Of 
the  vast  quantity  of  cotton  goods  in  the  Fair,  some  look  like 
Manchester  pieces,  but  much  is  certainly  the  inferior  work 
of  Russian  hands.  There  is  no  mistaking  the  Nouveautes 
de  Paris,”  which  are  to  be  met  with  on  all  sides ;  buttons, 
especially  ornamental  buttons,  gayly  ribboned  slippers,  pict¬ 
ures  of  women  beautiful  in  face  and  very  much  decolletees 
as  to  dress,  figures  in  lewd  attitudes,  some  representing  the 
performance  of  the  cancan — very  salable  in  Persia — parcels 
of  scent,  toys  of  all  kinds,  and  musical  instruments.  The 
large  and  open  demand  for  Parisian  pictures  of  the  lascivious 
sort  in  Mohammedan  countries  is  worth  volumes  of  printed 


THE  governor’s  PALACE. 


61 


commentary  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Koran.  These  pict- 
xires,  which  a  gar9on  of  the  Quartier  Latin  would  think  it 
bold  and  roue-like  to  display  upon  the  walls  of  his  garret, 
are,  in  Persia  and  Turkey,  paraded  in  the  family  apartments, 
and  treasured  in  photographic  albums  in  recesses  which  an¬ 
swer  to  the  drawing-room  tables  of  Western  Europe;  nor  is 
it  common  for  any  father  to  hesitate  in  illustrating  conversa¬ 
tion  carried  on  in  presence  of  his  sons  by  indecent  reference 
to  these  erotic  productions,  which  are  usually  the  work  of 
Frenchmen,  unless  the  taste  of  the  khan  or  effendi  leans  to 
the  less  veiled  and  coarser  indelicacy  of  German  work.  But 
this  is  premature;  we  are  not  yet  in  Persian  houses.  In  the 
Kijni  Fair,  Parisian  spoons  seem  to  tickle  most  successfully 
Asiatic  fancy,  while  prosaic  and  solid-working  Germany  con¬ 
tributes  stockings  and  strumpfbdnde^  less  elegant  than  the 
jarretUres  de  Paris. 

Floating  through  the  Fair  are  the  sellers  of  water-melons, 
shouting  arhus^^  a-r-r-r-r  at  the  top  of  their  voices. 

But  they  are  silent  often  when  the  glistening  red  inside  of 
the  huge  fruit  attracts  thirsty  buyers  of  slices  at  one  copeck 
each.  Others,  armed  with  scale  and  weights,  vend  luscious 
grapes  just  arrived  by  steamboat  from  the  shores  of  the 
Caspian.  One  can  not  go  far  without  meeting  a  man  loaded 
with  furry  caps,  much  worn  in  Russia.  About  the  centre  of 
the  Fair  is  the  governor’s  ‘^palace,”  in  which  the  Duke  of 
Edinburgh  lately  staid.  It  has  an  unusual,  and,  I  believe  for 
a  palace,  unique  feature,  in  the  emblazonment  of  “  Cafe  Res¬ 
taurant”  upon  the  wall  of  the  ground-floor.  This  is  in  Rus¬ 
sian  letters,  of  course,  and  it  tempts  one  to  enter.  Being  a 
Russian  cafe,  it  is  without  ventilation,  and  the  fumes  of 
smoke — to  say  nothing  of  the  mingled  smell  of  soup,  of  oily 
fish,  of  tea,  and  of  greasy  people  in  heavy  costumes  bearing 
the  dirt  of  years  —  prevent  any  immediate  certainty  as  to 
whether  it  is  the  governor  in  person,  or  a  young  lady  of 


G2 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Nijni,  to  whom  so  many  guests  on  leaving  are  paying  their 
addresses  and  their  copecks.  It  is  a  young  lady ;  and  there 
is  no  connection  between  the  cafe  and  the  apartments  of  the 
first  floor,  which  lately  sheltered  the  illustrious  son-in-law 
of  the  Tsar. 

The  lively  aspect  of  the  Fair  spreads  upward  to  the  roofs, 
which,  as  one  sees  from  the  top  of  this  building,  are  all  paint¬ 
ed  red  or  green.  One  sees,  too,  the  ‘Mife”  of  the  Fair,  not 
only  coursing  over  all  the  land  between  the  two  rivers,  but 
extending  to  the  barges,  the  steamboats,  and  the  shallow-bot¬ 
tomed  vessels  of  every  shape  which  are  moored  upon  the 
sandy  shores. 

Nijni  is,  as  I  have  said,  very  picturesque  and  very  dirty. 
One  way  of  making  a  picturesque  town  is  to  take  a  site  some¬ 
what  irregular  and  rocky,  and  to  plant  houses  washed  with 
different  colors,  including  blue,  yellow,  and  salmon  color,  in 
gardens;  cover  these  habitations  with  roofs  painted  red  or 
ureen,  let  the  intervals  be  filled  in  with  trees  and  shrubs,  most 
of  them  old  and  large,  the  leaves  showing  varied  tints  of  au¬ 
tumn  ;  raise  here  and  there  a  green  or  gilded  cupola  of  some 
Byzantine  church ;  secure  over  all  a  blue  sky,  made  bright 
with  the  genial  warmth  of  the  shining  sun ;  the  result  will  be 
pleasing,  and  will  much  resemble  Nijni  as  it  appears  toward 
the  end  of  September. 


TICKETS  FOR  TWO  THOUSAND  MILES. 


63 


CHAPTER  Y. 

Leaving  Nijni.— The  Tsarevna  Marie. — Tickets  for  Two  Thousand  Miles. — 
Our  Fellow-passengers. — The  Alexander  II. — Kazan. — Mohammedans  in 
Eussia.— Our  Lady  of  Kazan.— “No  Sheets ! ’’—Oriental  Cleanliness.— 
Kussian  Climate  and  Clothing. — Orientalism  in  Russia. — Persian  Prayers. 
— A  Shi’ah’s  Devotions. — Shallowness  of  the  Volga. — The  River  Kama. 
— Hills  about  Simbirsk.— Samara. — Mare’s-milk  Cure. — ^Volsk.— Saratof. 
— Tartar  Population. — Prisoners  for  the  Caucasus  Tsaritzin, — Sarepta. — 
Gingerbread  and  Mustard. — Chorney  Yar. — A  Peasant  Mayor. — Tartar 
Fishermen. — Astrakhan. — Mouths  of  the  Volga. — Raising  Level  of  the 
Caspian. 

It  was  not  at  all  an  easy  matter  in  Nijni,  a  town  of  forty- 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  to  find  a  person  who  could  speak 
even  a  few  words  of  any  language  other  than  Russian,  or  the 
Arabic  patois  of  the  Russian  Tartars.  But  the  captain  of  the 
Tsarevna  Marie,  a  rather  high  and  mighty  man,  in  fur  coat 
and  fur-lined  boots,  could  talk  German,  and  with  his  assistance 
we  obtained,  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  rubles,  two  tick¬ 
ets,  entitling  us  to  a  separate  cabin  from  Nijni  down  the  Vol¬ 
ga  to  Astrakhan  (a  river  journey  of  about  fourteen  hundred 
miles),  and  from  Astrakhan,  again  south,  for  the  whole  length 
(more  than  six  hundred  miles)  of  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Per¬ 
sian  landing-place  of  Enzelli.  The  steamboats  of  this  part 
of  the  world,  in  waters  which  have  neither  ingress  nor  exit 
for  shipping,  are  the  pride  of  all  the  mooring-places,  though 
they  are  not  of  native  manufacture.  They  are  built  in  other 
countries  by  foreigners,  and  brought  in  pieces  to  the  banks  of 
the  Volga.  It  has  always  been  so  in  Russia.  The  first  ves¬ 
sel  of  war  ever  built  in  Russia  was  put  together  this  way  at 
Nijni  by  a  company  of  merchants  from  Holstein,  who  in  the 


64 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CAEAVAI^. 


seventeenth  century  obtained  permission  to  force  a  trade  with 
Persia  and  India  by  way  of  the  Volga  and  the  Caspian. 

From  the  considerable  town  of  Twer  to  its  lai’gest  mouth 
in  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  Volga  carries  steamboats  for  about 
eighteen  hundred  miles,  into  such  a  change  of  climate  that 
one  sees  passengers  who  are  wrapped,  chrysalis-like,  in  furs 
and  rugs  at  I^ijni,  transformed  into  a  butterfly  lightness  and 
gayety  of  costume  at  Astrakhan.  We  left  Nijni  at  the  time 
of  year  when  the  boats  are  most  crowded,  and  the  deck  saloon 
of  the  Tsarevna  Marie  was  not  exactly  delightful.  Though 
female  as  well  as  male  j)assengers  were  at  liberty  to  smoke  in 
every  part  of  the  vessel,  and  certainly  did  not  neglect  the  priv¬ 
ilege,  there  was  a  prejudice  against  open  windows  which  one 
finds  nowhere  so  strong  as  among  the  stove-grown  people  of 
Russia.  Literally,  the  Russian  women  of  the  I’icher  classes 
are  reared  in  hot-houses,  and  have  the  characteristics  of  fruit 
so  produced.  They  have  less  vitality  than  women  of  other 
countries,  and  their  beauty — exquisite  as  it  sometimes  shows 
itself — fades  more  quickly.  We  struggle,  and  at  last  resign 
ourselves  to  the  disagreeable  accompaniments  of  the  journey. 

We  travel  Avith  the  stream.  We  are  all  returning  from  the 
Fair  of  Nijni — a  heavy  bpat-load.  Our  fellow-passengers  are 
Russians  from  the  least  civilized  parts  of  the  European  Em¬ 
pire,  Persians  from  Resht  and  Teheran,  Armenians  and  Geor¬ 
gians  from  the  Caucasus,  Tartars  from  the  Lower  Volga.  We 
are  the  only  English  on  board.  Our  neighbors’  clothes  are  o-f 
many  colors  and  shapes,  and  this  many-colored  variety  is  the 
striking  feature  of  their  luggage.  The  Christians  of  the  su¬ 
perior  class  eat  royal  sturgeon  in  cutlets,  and  delicate  sterlet 
mostly  in  soup ;  while  the  more  picturesque  Mohammedans  on 
the  deck  are  content  Avith  unleavened  bread  and  grapes,  or 
Avater-melons.  All  of  us,  Avithout  distinction  of  creed  or  coun¬ 
try,  drink  tea;  the  engine  boiler  has  a  tap  on  deck  from  which 
the  Mohammedan  kettles  and  those  of  the  poorer  Christians 


THE  “ALEXANDER  II.’’ 


65 


aie  supplied  with  hot  water.  In  the  saloon  we  take  tea  d  la 
Busse—m  glasses,  and  amazingly  weak.  I  venture  to  abuse 
the  Russian  mode  of  taking  warm  water  with  the  faintest  col¬ 
oring  of  tea,  which  at  once  brings  down  the  national  wrath  of 
a  passenger,  who  declares  that  the  English  “boil”  their  tea, 

and  will  have  it  no  other  way  but  “  cooked  ”  like  broth  or 
soup. 

When  it  was  wet  and  cold,  on  the  way  from  Nijni-Novgo- 
lod  to  Kazan,  the  poorer  Christians  on  board  the  Tsarevna 
J\£aTie  diank  corn -brandy  largely,  while  the  Mohammedans 
hid  themselves  beneath  their  carpets  and  muttered  hopes  of 
reaching  a  better  land.  At  Kazan,  we  were  transferred  to 
the  Alexander  II,  a  very  large  vessel,  her  white  hull  tower¬ 
ing  five-and-twenty  feet  above  the  water.  She  is  built  upon 
the  plan  of  those  Hudson  River  and  Mississippi  steamboats 
which  have  so  long  made  river  traveling  in  America  most 
comfortable.  She  has  two  floors  or  stories  above  the  water, 
into  which  she  presses  nowhere  to  a  greater  depth  than  four 
feet,  and  the  first  and  second  class  saloons  and  sleeping-cabins, 
with  their  surrounding  galleries,  are  entirely  shut  off  from 
the  under  story  or  main  deck,  where  are  the  third-class  pas¬ 
sengers,  and  where  the  cargo  is  received,  and  the  crew  are 
busy  in  making  the  vessel  fast  at  the  numerous  stations  on 
the  river.  In  September,  no  vessel  drawing  four  feet  of  wa¬ 
ter  can  get  up  the  river  to  Kijni,  and,  for  our  parts,  we  were 
b.y  no  means  sorry  to  quit  the  narrower  limits  of  the  Tsa~ 
revna  Marie  for  the  splendid  saloon  and  ample  space  of  the 
Alexander  II,  which,  after  assuring  us  that  she  is  “  the  first 
ship  on  the  river,”  the  captain  said  was  built  in  Belgium,  sent 
in  pieces  to  Russia,  and  put  together  on  the  banks  of  the 
Volga.  There  is  time  to  drive  to  Kazan,  of  which,  though 
it  is  three  miles  distant,  we  might  see  something  from  the 
river  if  the  banks  were  not  so  high  as  to  render  this  impos¬ 
sible. 


66  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAX. 

The  first  sight  of  Kazan,  a  town  of  eighty  thousand  inhab¬ 
itants,  impresses  one  with  a  sense  of  the  error  of  supposing 
that  Russia  in  Europe  is  exclusively  inhabited  by  Christians. 
We  had,  in  1868,  seen  mosques  at  Eupatoria,  and  Tartars  in 
other  parts  of  the  Crimea,  but  we  hardly  expected  to  find 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  of  one  of  the  princi¬ 
pal  towns  in  Central  Russia  composed  of  Mohammedans,  of 
whom,  perhaps,  there  are  not  less  than  twenty  thousand  in 
Kazan.  There  is  a  tower  in  Kazan  which  some  assert  is  a 
relic  of  times  when  the  Tartars  held  their  own  in  this  region. 
But  Kazan  has  been  reduced  to  ashes,”  as  the  historians 
say,  more  than  once,  and  there  is  so  much  that  is  Tartaresque 
in  Russian  buildings  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries, 
that  this  may  as  well  be  a  monument  of  the  conqueror  Ivan 
the  Terrible  as  of  any  Tartar  Tsar.  There  is  Our  Lady  of 
Kazan  ” — she  is  Russian  every  bit  of  her.  She  is  miracu¬ 
lous,”  and  a  church  has  been  built  on  purpose  to  receive  her. 
Her  miracle  ”  consisted  in  escaping  destruction  when  the 
building  in  which  she  was  suspended  was  consumed  by  fire. 
Doubtless  she  was  removed  by  some  priest  and  placed  in  a 
miraculous  position  after  the  fire,  or  she  may  easily  have  been 
preserved  by  the  accidents  of  the  conflagration.  It  is  proba¬ 
bly  true  that  many  miracles  ”  of  this  sort  happened  in  the 
Pantechnicon  to  articles  ol  furniture  stored  there  before  the 
fire.  From  a  picture  she  was  transformed  into  a  revenue  by 
the  miracle.  Catherine  II.  placed  diamonds  of  enormous  value 
above  her  head;  and  orthodox  Russians,  who  bow  down  be¬ 
fore  her,  feel  entitled  to  look  with  contempt  upon  their  hea¬ 
then  fellow-townsmen,  the  Tartar  Mussulmans. 

“  Ko  sheets !”  I  hear  the  one  English  lady  exclaim,  as  we 
are  leaving  the  moorings  at  Kazan ;  and  it  does  strike  one  as 
odd  and  uncomfortable,  to  see  nothing  but  a  bare  couch  pro¬ 
vided  for  a  five  days’  voyage — not  a  single  article  of  bedding. 
Frostenia—i.  6.,  bed-linen— is  perhaps  the  Russian  word  which 


ORIENTAL  CLEANLINESS. 


07 


English  travelers  pronounce  with  most  energy.  Muscovite 
civilization  has  not  yet  attained  to  sheets ;  indeed,  Russians 
are  generally  prepared  to  maintain  that  theirs  is  the  better 
mode  of  sleeping.  The  Russians  have  in  this,  as  in  many 
other  matters,  the  Oriental  rather  than  the  Occidental  fash¬ 
ion.  In  Western  Europe,  it  is  the  cleanly,  wholesome  custom 
to  lay  aside  entirely  the  garments  of  the  day.  In  Eastern 
Europe  and  in  Asia,  the  opposite  plan  prevails ;  and,  for  the 
most  part,  people  sleep  in  some,  if  not  all,  the  clothes  in  which 
they  have  tilled  the  land  or  walked  the  street.  In  the  house 
of  a  Persian,  a  man’s  bed  is  anywhere  upon  the  carpets  in 
any  one  of  the  rooms.  There  are  always  pillows  lying  about, 
on  which  to  rest  the  arm  or  back  by  day  and  the  head  by 
night.  He  takes  his  sleep  by  night  as  an  Englishman  does 
his  nap  after  dinner,  except  that  the  Englishman  is  generally 
raised  from  the  floor,  and  the  Persian  is  not.  Britains  will 
humble  themselves  metaphorically  to  the  dust,  in  asking  a 
friend  to  “  give  them  a  bed.”  In  Oriental  lands,  neither  host 
nor  guest  would  understand  such  a  phrase ;  for  every  trav¬ 
eler,  whether  he  be  visitor  or  voyager,  carries  all  that  he  re¬ 
quires  for  sleeping,  except  shelter  from  inclement  weather; 
and  a  man’s  hospitality  is  not  limited,  as  with  us,  to  the  con¬ 
fines  of  his  spare  bed,”  nor  is  there  any  of  that  sense  of  in¬ 
delicacy  in  sleeping  in  company  with  others  which  is  the  nat¬ 
ural  consequence  of  the  bedroom  arrangements  of  Western 
Europe. 

When  people  make  their  bed  anywhere,  and  are  in  the  hab¬ 
it  of  carrying  all  that  they  deem  requisite  in  this  way  from 
place  to  place,  they  dispense  with  articles  which  would  require 
frequent  washing.  It  is  otherwise  when  the  bed  becomes  a 
fixed  institution,  as  in  England ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  more  cleanly  practice  is  that  which  brings  as  much 
as  possible  of  the  bedding  most  frequently  to  the  wash-tub, 
and  with  regard  to  the  person,  that  which  suggests  by  most 


68 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN-. 


complete  removal  of  garments  of  every-day  life  the  most  com¬ 
plete  and  thorough  ablutions. 

It  is  quite  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Oriental  peoples  are 
the  most  cleanly  because  they  observe  the  washings  directed 
by  the  Koran.  These  are  certainly  performed,  and  not  with¬ 
out  good  effect ;  but  this  is  done  in  the  perfunctory  manner 
in  which  religious  obligations  are  generally  undertaken,  and 
it  is  done  while  w'earing  clothes  which  may  not  have  been  , 
removed  for  weeks.  The  face  is  smeared  with  water  before 
prayer  and  before  eating,  but  there  is  no  washing  such  as 
will  remove  the  dust  from  eyes  already  menaced,  as  a  conse¬ 
quence,  with  chronic  ophthalmia;  and  if  it  were  not  the  cus¬ 
tom  among  Mohammedans  to  shave  their  heads,  their  matted 
hair  would  become  a  preserve  for  noxious  vermin. 

The  worst  of  the  Russian  is  that  he  has  carried  some  of 
these  customs  rather  too  far  north.  He  does  not  shave  his 
head,  nor  clean  it.  His  food  of  oily  fish,  or  the  most  greasy 
preparation  of  meat,  the  demand  of  a  cold  climate,  is  not  so 
cleanly  as  the  rice  saturated  with  meat  gravy  and  the  fruit  of 
the  Oriental.  At  six  months  after  date,  the  clothes  of  the 
Russian  are  not  so  tolerable  as  those  of  the  Oriental  of  the 
South.  The  climate  being  so  much  colder,  the  Russian  sleeps 
in  a  less  pure  atmosphere,  and  indeed  the  air  of  Russian  bed¬ 
rooms,  even  of  the  higher  class,  is,  in  winter,  often  disgusting. 
Russians,  whom  English  people  meet  in  Italy  during  winter, 
are  often  heard  to  say  that  they  have  never  experienced  the 
miseries  of  cold  until  they  came  south  of  the  Alps.  On  board 
the  Alexander  though  there  were  yet  more  than  three 
months  remaining  of  the  year,  and  though  the  weather  was 
by  no  means  what  English  people  would  call  cold,  the  cabins 
were  heated  with  hot- water  pipes.  Two  Russian  gentlemen 
complained  of  loss  of  appetite,  from  headache,  and  of  sleepless¬ 
ness.  They  were  astonished  when  we  asked  how  they  could 
expect  any  other  result  after  lying  for  hours  in  a  small  cabin 


OKIENTALISM  IN  RUSSIA. 


69 


with  the  door  and  window  closed,  and  with  their  pillows  all 
but  resting  upon  a  huge  pipe  filled  with  boiling  water.  To 
their  surprise,  they  were  cured  next  day  by  changing  their 
pillows  to  the  opposite  ends  of  their  beds,  and  by  leaving  two 
inches  of  their  window  open.  The  day  on  which  we  left  Ka¬ 
zan  was  such  as  in  England  would  have  been  called  and  en¬ 
joyed  as  “  a  mild  autumn  day;”  but  being  in  Russia,  the  cab¬ 
ins  were  warmed  to  a  stewy  heat,  and  we  noticed  through 
the  day  that  our  cabin  was  the  only  one  of  which  the  window 
was  open. 

It  would 'be  possible  to  enumerate,  almostr  to  weariness, 
the  points  in  which  Russians,  differing  from  the  people  of 
Western  Europe,  resemble  those  races  whom  we  call  Orient¬ 
als.  Except  Turkey,  Russia  is  the  only  European  country 
in  which  women  smoke  tobacco  habitually.  Turkish  women 
are,  as  a  rule,  delicate,  owing  to  their  customary  seclusion  in 
houses  (some  do  not  pass  the  threshold  for  months,  or  even 
years),  and  to  the  substitution  of  narcotics  and  sweet-meats 
for  wholesome  and  nutritious  food.  Russian  women  are 
often  not  less  feeble,  owing  to  similar  habits,  and  to  the  un¬ 
natural,  enervating  temperature  of  their  houses.  We  have 
seen  at  Moscow  and  elsewhere  how,  after  the  manner  of  the 
mosque,  Russians  make  the  place  of  honor  for  interment  in 
the  corners  of  their  churches.  In  the  Cathedral  of  the  As¬ 
sumption,  the  resting-place  of  the  most  revered  dead,  the 
tombs  of  SS.  Theognostus,  Peter,  Philip,  and  Jonah,  all  Met¬ 
ropolitans  of  Moscow,  are  enshrined  in  the  four  angles  of  that 
Avonderful  church ;  and  there  also  are  the  remains  of  SS.  Pho- 
tius  and  Cyprian,  of  Philaret  and  Hermogenes,  Patriarchs  of 
the  Russo-Greek  Church.  Some  confusion  of  manners  and 
customs  is  perhaps  inevitable  in  an  empire  which  extends 
through  thirty  degrees  of  latitude,  and  includes  Finns  and 
Persians,  Germans  and  Calmuck  Tartars,  with  people  of  many 
colors  and  creeds — the  fair-haired  girls  of  Hango  and  Hel- 


70  THKOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

singfors,  and  the  ebonized  descendants  of  Tartar  slaves ;  fol¬ 
lowers  of  Luther  and  worshipers  of  Buddha. 

As  the  setting  sun  and  the  flat  horizon  draw  together  in 
the  reddening  light  of  evening,  representatives  of  millions  of 
the  Tsar’s  subjects  mount  the  highest  places  in  our  vessel, 
and  turn  their  prayerful  eyes  tow^ard  Mecca.  But  whether 
the  view  was  clouded  with  pitiless  rain,  in  our  journey  from 
Nijni  to  Kazan,  or  brilliant  at  Kazan  and  onward  to  As¬ 
trakhan,  never  did  some  of  the  Persian  and  Tartar  traders 
omit,  about  the  hours  of  sunrise  and  sunset,  to  stand  with  un¬ 
covered  feet  and  make  their  prayers  and  obeisance  toward 
the  East.  How  could  man,  we  thought  at  the  time,  be  more 
picturesque  than  one  of  these  merchants  of  Russian  Persia, 
to  whose  naturally  great  stature  was  added  a  conical  fur  hat, 
high  as  the  bear-skin  of  an  English  Guardsman !  Pressing 
this  high  crown  of  curling  black  lamb-skin  tightly  on  his  brow 
against  the  wind,  he  stripped  off  his  outer  robe,  lined  with  the 
yellow  fur  of  the  marmot,  which  he  spread  as  a  prayer-carpet 
upon  the  high  deck.  Observed,  yet  seeming  utterly  uncon¬ 
scious  and  unnoticed  by  all  around,  he  laid  aside  his  boots, 
and  stepped  in  his  stockings  upon  his  coat  of  fur.  Then, 
drawing  his  bright  green  tunic  more  tightly  within  his  silver- 
mounted  waist-belt,  he  placed  both  hands  upon  his  loose  trou¬ 
sers  of  black  satin,  and  gazed  in  rapt  attention  upon  the  east¬ 
ern  sky.  Soon  he  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  pressed  his  fore¬ 
head  several  times  upon  the  deck.  He  rose,  and  with  new 
motions,  designed  to  clear  his  thoughts  from  things  of  earth, 
and  to  make  him  receptive  of  ideas  of  Allah  the  all-merciful, 
he  continued  and  concluded  his  devotions.  We  know  that 
there  is  hypocrisy  among  men  of  every  creed,  and  in  Moham¬ 
medanism,  as  in  others,  a  frequent  seeming  unto  men  to  pray ; 
■we  know  how  much  higher  and  nobler  in  morality  and  jus¬ 
tice,  as  in  every  other  valuable  attribute,  is  true  Christianity ; 
but  there  can  equally  be  no  doubt  in  our  minds  that  the  out- 


SHALLOWNESS  OF  THE  VOLGA. 


71 


ward  aspect  of  this  Mohammedan  prayer  is  far  nobler  than 
the  ceiemonies  of  the  Greek  Church,  than  the  relio'ious  exer- 
cises  of  Russians,  with  their  farthing  tapers,  their  bowings, 
their  kissing  of  books  and  of  tinseled  pictures. 

No  river  of  Europe  so  much  resembles  the  Nile  as  the  Vol¬ 
ga,  and,  especially  in  its  southern  course,  the  sandy  likeness 
is  very  remarkable.  For  hundreds  of  miles  the  country  upon 
the  Volga  is  low  and  uninteresting.  Like  the  Danube,  and 
like  the  Nile  also,  the  right  bank  is  the  more  elevated;  and, 
as  upon  the  African  river,  the  stream  is  occasionally  crossed 
by  sandy  shallows,  and  the  crew  are  summoned  to  sounding 
by  the  ringing  of  the  captain’s  bell.  IJpon  a  river  of  such 
majestic  breadth,  one  is  at  first  amazed  at  the  figures  which 
are  called  out  by  the  man  who,  from  the  head  of  the  vessel, 
sounds  the  depth  with  a  pole,  colored  alternately  black  and 
white,  in  lengths  rather  less  than  a  foot ;  eight,”  “  six,”  and 
sometimes  “five,”  he  calls.  It  is  demonstrated  that  the  Al- 
cxQ,nd6T  II. ^  with  excellent  accommodation  for  thirty  first- 
class,  as  many  second-class,  and  any  number  of  third-class 
passengers,  to  say  nothing  of  cargo,  draws  no  more  than  four 
feet  of  w^ater.  Her  furnaces  are  fed  with  the  fuel  of  the 
country,  cleft  logs  of  pine,  each  about  two  feet  in  length; 
and  twice  or  three  times  in  every  day  a  fresh  supply  of  wood 
is  taken  in,  wLich  is  invariably  carried  on  board  from  the 
shore  by  women. 

.  Half  a  day’s  journey  after  leaving  Kazan,  we  arrive  at  the 
point  where  the  bluish  Volga  receives  the  yellowish  waters 
of  the  Kama,  the  highway  into  Siberia.  We  pass  on  toward 
Simbirsk,  at  which  we  touch  in  the  hours  of  night.  The 
lights  of  the  town  look  down  upon  us  from  a  height  of  five 
hundred  feet,  and  the  right  bank  of  the  river  rises  still  high¬ 
er  as  we  proceed  the  next  day  toward  Samara.  Just  as  upon 
the  Rhine  one  is  told  to  reserve  admiration  for  the  famous 
view  of  the  Siebengebirgc,  and  upon  the  less  picturesque 


72 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Danube  for  the  scenery  of  the  Iron  Gates,  so  upon  the  Volga 
it  is  between  Simbirsk  and  Samara  that  lovers  of  the  beau¬ 
tiful  are  supposed  to  reach  the  acme  of  delight.  The  brief 
beauties  of  the  Volga  could  be  seen  to  no  greater  advantage 
than  when  we  passed  them  in  the  last  days  of  September; 
and  the  green  firs  set  in  the  golden  coloring  of  autumn-tinted 
birch  leaves  are  very  refreshing  and  attractive  for  the  short 
distance  in  which  there  is  any  thing  approaching  the  pictur¬ 
esque  in  the  scenery  upon  the  Volga. 

Near  Samara,  Avhere  the  right  bank,  like  the  unvarying 
left,  is  once  more  flat,  we  observed  the  commencement  of  an 
important  public  work  of  a  character  most  truly  Russian — a 
work  to  which,  I  should  hope,  the  poll-tax,  rather  than  Brit¬ 
ish  investors  in  Russian  railways,  will  contribute  in  every 
stone  and  girder.  In  this  century,  the  undertaking  will  nev¬ 
er  ‘^pay,”  from  the  investor’s  point  of  view.  We  saw  the 
beginning  of  a  viaduct  across  the  Volga,  a  viaduct  which  will 
be  the  longest  in  the  world,  forming  a  connection  by  railway 
between  St.  Petersburg  and  Orenburg.  The  procureur -ge¬ 
neral  of  the  latter  town  was  standing  beside  us  as  we  ap¬ 
proached  the  preparatory  works.  He  and  his  townsmen  re¬ 
joiced  greatly  at ’the  proposed  expenditure  of  a  million  ster¬ 
ling,  apparently  for  the  benefit  of  Orenburg,  as  it  is  not  in 
contemplation  to  push  the  railway  farther  to  the  east.  But 
they  all  understand  very  well  that  this  is  the  high-road  to 
Khiva,  and  that  the  Government,  by  constructing  this  via¬ 
duct  and  railway,  will  vastly  increase  the  security  of  their 
hold  upon  Central  Asia,  and  the  facilities  for  extending  con¬ 
quest  in  that  direction. 

At  Samara  we  have  passed  eight  hundred  and  forty  versts 
from  Nijni.  In  all  these  towns  of  the  Volga  there  is  a  large 
Mohammedan  population ;  but  the  most  curious  circumstance 
about  Samara  is  in  the  mare’s-milk  cure,  which  is  carried  on 
in  several  of  the  best  houses  near  the  river-side,  these  estab- 


VOLSK. 


73 

lishinents  being  superintend  eel  by  medical  men,  just  as  hydro¬ 
pathic  cures  are  in  England.  At  Samara,  mares’  milk  is  made 
into  an  effervescing  and  fermented  drink  by  the  admixture  of 
an  acid ;  and  the  result,  not  very  unlike  one  variety  of  cheap 
Champagne,  in  flavor  as  well  as  in  appearance,  is  taken  as  a 
cure  for  diseases  of  the  lungs  and  kidneys.  At  Volsk  we  are 
nearly  seven  hundred  miles  from  Nijni.  We  landed  at  this 
“  large,  handsome  town,”  as  Murray’s  “  Hand-book  for  Russia  ” 
calls  it,  upon  a  sand -heap  littered  with  refuse  of  all  kinds. 
There  were  several  carriages  waiting  for  hire ;  but  these  were 
nothing  better  than  dirty  baskets,  originally  of  great  strength, 
containing  a  handful  of  dried  roots  and  grass,  of  the  roughest 
sort,  for  the  fare  ”  to  sit  upon.  One  or  two  had  a  seat  cov¬ 
ered  with  leather;  but  it  needed  the  education  of  a  life-time 
to  keep  one’s  self  on  this  perch,  when  the  vehicle  moved  over 
the  deep  and  filthy  ruts  of  the  main  streets.  The  streets  of 
Volsk  are  straight  and  wide;  the  houses  are,  with  very  rare 
exceptions,  built  like  a  log-hut,  of  fir  poles,  tenoned  and  mor¬ 
tised  together,  just  in  the  same  style  as  the  houses  in  a  Nor¬ 
wegian  village. 

The  Mayor  of  Volsk  and  his  wife,  who  came  on  board  as 
passengers  to  Saratof,  were  full  to  overflowing  with  happy  an¬ 
ticipation  of  the  gayeties  of  the  latter  town,  where,  they  told 
us,  an  Italian  opera  company  were  giving  a  series  of  perform¬ 
ances,  some  of  which  they  hoped  to  witness.  I  asked  his  wor¬ 
ship  how  the  Tartars,  of  whom  there  are  a  great  number  in 
Volsk,  agreed  with  the  Russians.  He  said  that  difficulties 
constantly  arose,  and  that  recently  Tartars  had  complained  to 
him,  alleging  that  Russians  would  not  let  them  use  the  public 
wells.  When  we  arrived  at  Saratof,  we  were  almost  inclined 
to  laugh  at  the  notion  of  Italian  opera  in  such  a  place,  where 
the  rickety  wooden  sheds  of  the  Tartar  bazaar  occupy  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Opera-house.  Probably  one-third  of  the 
ninety  thousand  inhabitants  of  Saratof  are  Mohammedans,  and 

4 


74 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


live  ill  kennels  in  the  outskirts,  or  in  their  wooden  shops. 
Some  of  these  people,  with  a  store  in  the  bazaar,  which  is  per¬ 
haps  ten  feet  square,  have  a  bundle  of  dried  grass  in  a  corner, 
which  they  cover  with  a  carpet.  This  serves  them  for  bed, 
and  the  place  is  at  once  home  and  shop.  But  the  streets,  like 
those  of  other  Russian  towns  on  the  Volga,  though  their  sur¬ 
face  is  the  public  sewer,  and  is  without  any  attempt  at  paving, 
are  generally  straight  and  wide ;  and  a  house  which  would  be 
thought  good  in  a  second-rate  German  town  stands  side  by 
side  with  a  wooden  hovel  neither  water-tight  nor  wind-proof. 

The  Tartars  in  these  towns  have  probably  a  hard  time, 
and  suffer  much  oppression.  Their  religion  is  tolerated ;  and 
though  they  rarely  have  mosques  in  the  shape  of  buildings 
designed  and  erected  for  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  they 
have  houses  which,  though  with  none  of  the  outward  appear¬ 
ances  of  a  mosque,  are  set  apart  for  their  religious  ceremo¬ 
nies.  All  this  region,  where  they  now  take  the  lowest  place, 
was  once  their  own.  They  have  schools,  but  only  those  at¬ 
tached  to  their  mosques,  and  there  nothing  beyond  the  poor 
art  of  reading  a  few  sentences  from  the  Koran  is  taught. 
Many  of  them  steal  away  into  the  Turkish  Empire,  in  order 
to  avoid  the  operation  of  the  new  military  law,  which  has  put 
thousands  of  these  Mohammedans  of  Europe  into  the  uniforms 
of  the  Russian  army. 

On  the  Volga,  about  Saratof,  in  autumn,  one  sees  boats 
loaded  with  melons,  the  fruit  stacked  high  upon  the  decks, 
just  as  the  old-fashioned  sixty-pound  cannon-balls  were  piled 
in  former  days  at  Woolwich.  Third-class  passengers  rush  on 
shore  at  every  station,  buy  a  melon  as  big  as  one’s  head  for 
copecks  of  the  value  of  threepence,  a  large  loaf  of  brown-bread 
for  as  much  more,  and  there  is  provision  for  a  man  for  a 
whole  day.  At  Kijni  we  had  seen  a  procession  of  prisoners 
on  the  way  to  Siberia ;  at  Saratof  we  saw  a  number  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  similar  circumstances,  on  the  way  to 


PEISONERS  EOR  THE  CAUCASUS. 


75 


the  Caucasus.  They  were  marched  on  board  a  passenger 
steam-vessel,  in  build  resembling  the  Alexander  IL,  between 
two  files  of  soldiers,  and  secured  in  two  large  cages  placed 
near  the  paddle-boxes.  The  front  of  each  cage  overlooking 
the  water,  and  the  sides,  which  faced  the  stern  of  the  steam¬ 
boat,  were  barred  with  iron,  so  that  every  part  of  the  interior 
could  be  seen,  just  as  in  the  lion-houses  of  the  Zoological  Gar¬ 
dens,  with  this  difference,  that  in  the  case  of  these  prisoners 
there  was  no  overhanging  roof  to  prevent  rain  or  sunshine 
from  pouring  in  upon  their  wretchedness.  At  the  back  of 
each  cage  there  was  a  lair  common  to  all,  without  distinction 
of  sex  or  age.  When  all  were  secured,  including  the  guiltless 
wives  and  children,  fights  occurred  for  places  least  exposed  to 
the  cold  wind.  The  Tartar  prisoners  were  alone.  No  wives 
had  elected  to  go  with  their  Tartar  husbands  into  the  snows 
of  the  Caucasus.  The  greater  criminals  wore  heavy  chains, 
linked  to  their  ankles  and  wrists,  the  loud  clanking  of  which, 
as  they  walked  to  and  fro  in  the  cage,  seemed  to  be  enjoyed 
as  a  sort  of  distinction  in  the  miserable  crowd.  There  were 
three  soldiers  in  undress  uniform,  one  of  them  wearing  chains 
of  this  sort.  But  the  saddest  sight  was  the  exposure  of  the 
innocent  children  in  a  criminal  cage,  and  the  inevitable  injury 
to  them  of  being  thus  associated  with  criminals,  and  exhibited 
for  days  to  the  population  of  the  Volga,  in  a  company  where 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  he  appeared  the  greatest  hero 
whose  chains  clanked  heaviest. 

Saratof  is  the  largest  town  upon  the  Volga,  and  its  site 
is  so  hilly  that  from  one  point  of  view  nearly  the  whole  of 
its  buildings  may  be  seen.  It  has  an  immense  trade  in  fish 
and  agricultural  productions.  The  description  of  Saratof  as 
“  handsome,”  in  Murray’s  “  Hand-book,”  is  ridiculous  and  mis¬ 
leading.  It  has  a  few  official  buildings  which  would  pass 
muster  in  a  second-rate  German  town,  and  it  has  the  prime 
element  in  the  formation  of  a  handsome  town — that  of  lib- 


76 


THROUGH  PERSIA  EY  CARAVAN. 


eral  space  in  the  plan  of  its  roads  and  streets.  Compared 
with  a  purely  Tartar  village,  it  may  seem  handsome ;  but  Sa- 
ratof  is,  to  a  great  extent,  itself  Tartar.  So  is  Tsaritzin,  the 
next  railway  station  upon  the  Volga.  Tsaritzin  is  usually  the 
place  of  debarkation  for  travelers  from  Persia  and  the  Cas¬ 
pian  who  are  bound  for  Western  Europe.  With  the  next 
place,  at  which  the  Alexander  II.  stops,  we  are  disappointed. 
We  had  hoped  to  find  the  little  town  of  Sarepta  upon  the  wa¬ 
ter-side.  It  is  known  throughout  Russia  as  an  exclusive  col¬ 
ony  of  the  German  “  Herrnhtiter  ” — the  Moravian  Brethren, 
and  spoken  of  as  a  model  of  social  welfare  and  successful 
industry.  Instead  of  the  town,  there  was  only  a  wooden  stall 
in  sight.  This  was  painted  green,  and  stood  at  some  little 
distance  from  the  landing-place  on  the  sandy  bank  of  the 
river.  The  captain  declared  he  did  not  intend  to  wait  more 
than  two  or  three  minutes,  but  it  was  clear  that,  whatever 
happened,  half  a  hundred  at  least  of  the  passengers  were  re¬ 
solved  to  reach  that  wooden  stall.  Behind  the  little  counter, 
which  was  spread  with  gingerbread  cakes  and  neatly  fastened 
packets  bearing  the  word  Sarepta  ”  in  large  letters,  stood  a 
tall,  solemn-looking  German,  who,  if  he  had  been  born  with 
ten  arms  in  place  of  two,  could  not  have  delivered  ginger¬ 
bread  fast  enough  to  satisfy  the  eager  and  hurried  passen¬ 
gers.  Seeing  that  the  cakes  looked  good,  several  people 
bought  the'  mysterious  packets,  of  whom  one  at  least  was  ig¬ 
norant,  as  we  were,  that  these  contained  not  cakes,  but  condi¬ 
ment — the  mustard  of  Sarepta,  for  the  manufacture  of  which 
the  German  colony  is  famous.  The  Sarepta  community  have 
a  shop  in  St.  Petersburg  for  the  sale  of  their  mustard  and 
gingerbread. 

'  The  Volga  widens  to  a  noble  stream.  Gazing  on  its  broad 
and  resplendent  surface  at  any  point  between  Kazan  and  As¬ 
trakhan,  one  would  hardly  suspect  its  real  weakness  —  its 
shallowness.  At  Chorney  Yar,  we  were  more  than  sixteen 


A  PEASANT  MAYOE. 


11 

hundred  miles  from  Twer,  and  yet  our  four- feet- deep  ship 
grated  on  the  sandy  bottom  of  the  shallows  at  that  point. 
To  be  sure,  we  were  there  in  the  time  of  year  when  the  wa¬ 
ters  of  the  Volga  are  at  their  lowest;  in  May  the  river  has 
twice  the  breadth  to  which  it  dwindles  in  September,  and 
there  is  then  more  movement  and  life  upon  the  stream.  We 
passed  hours  without  seeing  a  vessel  of  any  description'.  At 
Chorney  Yar  the  mayor  and  his  deputy  ushered  the  govern¬ 
or  of  the  province  of  Astrakhan  to  a  cabin  in  the  Alexan¬ 
der  II,  They,  in  their  official  costumes,  afforded  an  interest¬ 
ing  exhibition  of  the  personnel  of  Russian  local  government. 
The  mayor,  evidently  a  peasant,  wore  a  gilt-laced  coat,  very 
like  a  Windsor  uniform,  and  over  his  shoulders  a  massive 
chain  —  of  brass,  I  should  think  —  which  at  odd  moments, 
when  his  worship  fancied  himself  unobserved,  he  adjusted  to 
a  nice  diagonal  upon  his  wide  chest.  He  looked  as  comforta¬ 
ble,  in  his  gorgeous  apparel,  as  the  Shah  did  in  his  diamond¬ 
breasted  coat  when  seated  upon  a  high  chair  at  some  of  the 
London  entertainments. 

We  glide  on  over  the  stream,  running  between  low  sandy 
banks  across  the  steppe  of  Astrakhan.  The  water  of  the 
Volga  pales  from  the  appearance  of  burnished  gold  to  that 
of  molten  silver,  as  the  lovely  tints  of  the  Southern  sunset 
gave  place  to  the  cool  twilight.  What  a  picture  those  four 
Calmuck  fishermen,  with  their  immense  circular  caps  of  white 
fur,  their  swarthy  faces,  with  the  clearly  marked  Mongol  feat¬ 
ures,  their  pink,  blue,  and  white  garments  would  make !  Their 
rudely  constructed  boat,  with  a  bow^  rising  from  the  water  and 
sharpened  to  the  shape  of  a  pike’s  mouth,  is  grotesquely  paint¬ 
ed.  On  the  high,  square  stern  is  a  cartoon  representing  a  yel¬ 
low  lion,  with  face  averted  from  the  object  of  pursuit,  chasing 
a  lady  in  short  costume  among  a.grove  of  trees.  The  evening 
sun  bathes  them  in  splendor ;  their  squalor  looks  like  glory ; 
a  pelican,  whose  natural  color  is  a  dirty  white,  flaps  its  yard- 


18 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


long  wings,  and  projects  its  pouched  bill  over  the  water  be¬ 
fore  them  —  a  gilded  bird;  even  the  misery  of  their  reed- 
roofed  hut,  with  walls  of  crumbling  sandy  mud,  is  metamor¬ 
phosed  into  beauty ;  and  far  in  the  distance,  across  the  unva¬ 
rying  level,  the  sunlight  marks  the  green  cupolas  of  the  Ortho¬ 
dox  Cathedral  of  Astrakhan — a  town  mainly  Mongol,  partly 
Russian,  where  the  Volga  at  last  pours  its  waters  through 
many  and  long  mouths  into  the  Caspian. 

Within  a  w^eek  we  have  passed  in  the  same  boat  from  one 
of  the  best  bear-hunting  grounds  in  all  Russia,  a  forest  of  fir 
near  Kazan,  to  this  strange  town,  to  which  Russian  gentlemen 
come  for  the  Indian  sport  of  “  pig-sticking,”  which  is  much 
practiced  in  the  neighborhood  of  Astrakhan — a  town  in  which 
the  scanty  mixture  of  Russian  houses  with  the  mud-built  huts 
of  Calmuck  Tartars  proclaims  the  remotest  borders  of  Euro¬ 
pean  civilization.  There  is  nothing  very  strange  to  see  in 
Astrakhan,  except  the  houses  of  the  Tartars  and  the  curious 
worship  in  their  pagodas.  Perhaps  the  best  thing  in  the 
place  is  the  caviare,  for  which  Astrakhan  is  famous.  This 
delicacy  is,  however,  being  obtained  at  cruel  and  ruinous  cost 
to  the  sturgeon -fisheries  of  the  Volga.  Russians  say  that 
caviare  is  nowhere  so  good  as  in  Astrakhan,  and.  certainly  the 
damp  turnip-seed,  or  that  which  looks  like  turnip  or  rape  seed, 
sold  in  London  as  caviare,  has  very  little  resemblance  to  the 
greenish,  fresh  dainty  which  one  obtains,  though  not  very 
cheaply,  in  Astrakhan.  Each  particle  of  the  caviare  of  As¬ 
trakhan  is  three  times  as  large,  apparently  from  mere  fresh¬ 
ness,  as  that  sold  in  London ;  the  color  is  different  and  the 
flavor  as  unlike  as  that  which  distinguishes  fresh  grapes 
from  raisins. 

Moored  at  Astrakhan  after  six  days’  journey  on  the  riv¬ 
er,  we  can  not  but  reflect  how  vastly  greater  would  be  the 
Russian  power  if  the  Volga  had  the  uniform  depth  of  the 
Thames ;  if,  instead  of  flowing  through  two  thousand  five 


RAISING  THE  LEVEL  OF  THE  CASPIAN. 


79 


hundred  miles  of  the  poorest  land  in  Europe,  it  watered 
such  soils  as  those  of  Berks  and  Bucks ;  and  if,  in  place  of 
emptying  itself  into  a  closed  and  shallow  sea,  it  were  a  high¬ 
way  for  the  commerce  of  the  world.  Even  here  at  the  quays 
of  Astrakhan,  the  steamboat,  drawing  only  eight  feet  of 
water,  which  is  to  carry  us  down  the  whole  length  of  the 
Caspian,  can  not  approach  ;  we  must  be  tugged  in  a  flat-bot¬ 
tomed  barge  for  sixty  miles  or  more  through  the  delta  of  the 
Volo-a  to  where  the  vessel  lies  anchored  in  the  sea,  and  when 
we  have  boarded  her  we  shall  pass  yet  another  sixty  miles 
over  the  Caspian  before  we  shall  get  into  five  fathoms  of 
water.  Six  months  after  we  had  quitted  this  region,  we  read 
in  The  Times  the  scheme  of  an  American  engineer  who  pro¬ 
posed  to  raise  in  forty  years  the  surface  of  the  Caspian  five- 
and-twenty  feet,  to  a  level  with  the  waters  of  the  Black  Sea, 
by  cutting  a  small  channel,  which  in  that  long  period  would 
be  scooped  by  the  efiluent  water  to  the  size  of  a  ship-canal. 
Our  recollection  of  various  heights  of  the  shores  of  the  Cas¬ 
pian  is  not,  in  an  engineering  sense,  precise,  but  we  would 
suggest  to  this  American  engineer’’  the  practical  considera¬ 
tion  whether  his  plan,  if  carried  out,  would  not  submerge 
Astrakhan  and  a  large  part  of  Southern  Russia.  It  would 
certainly  obliterate  the  Russian  station  of  Ashurade,  so  im¬ 
portant  for  the  maintenance  of  Russian  influence  in  Peisia, 
and  it  would  conceal  forever  the  Persian  landing-places  on 
the  Caspian,  together  with  the  town  of  Resht,  and  much  of 
the  most  productive  land  in  the  dominions  of  the  Shah. 


80 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN^. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Louis  XIV.  and  the  Tsar. — Russian  Church  and  State. — Empress  Anne’s 
Buffoon. — Prayers  for  the  Tsar. — The  Russian  Press.  —  Censorship. — 
Press  Regulations.  —  The  Moscow  Gazette.  —  Difficulties  of  Journalists. 
— The  Wjedomosti. — The  Russki  Mir. — Russia  not  Russian. — Foreign 
Races. — New  Military  System. — The  Emancipation  of  the  Serfs. — The 
Communal  System. — Bad  Farming. — Ignorance  of  the  Peasantry. — The 
Corn  Trade. — Complaints  from  Odessa. — Resurrection  of  Sebastopol. — 
Corn  from  Russia  and  the  United  States. — The  Artel  of  Odessa. — De¬ 
mands  of  Odessa  Merchants. — A  Viceroy  wanted. — English  Interests  in 
Russian  Corn. — The  Soil  of  Russia. — The  Conquests  of  Russia. — Contrast 
with  Persia. — Borrowed  Money. — Unprofitable  Railways. — Revenue  of 
Russia. — Produce  of  Poll-tax. — Privileged  Citizens. 

In  the  great  library  of  St.  Petersburg  there  is  preserved 
a  writing  exercise  —  a  calligraphic  study — done  in  the  days 
of  his  childhood  by  Louis  XIV.  of  France.  Six  times,  at 
least,  the  little  hand  of  the  future  sovereign  was  instructed 
to  pen  the  following  sentiment :  L^hommage  est  deue  mix 
Toys;  ils  font  ce  qiCil  leurs  plaiV^ — (“Homage  is  due  to 
kings;  they  do  as  they  please”).  We  shall  be  more  kind 
to  the  memory  of  monarchs  when  we  remember  how  they 
have  been  trained  by  sycophants.  Nowhere  is  the  royal  of¬ 
fice  exalted  higher  than  in  Russia,  where  every  human  creat¬ 
ure  holds  life  and  liberty  at  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Tsar. 
Except  the  Sultan,  the  Tsar  has  no  peer  in  Europe ;  and  it 
is  no  wonder  if  the  solemn  loneliness  of  his  elevation  impairs 
the  nervous  system  and  menaces  the  sanity  of  members  even 
of  the  stalwart  race  of  Romanoff. 

Sprung  from  the  Church  of  Russia,  the  Tsars  are  never 
dissociated  from  it.  They  are  divine  as  well  as  imperial; 


PRAYEES  EOR  THE  TSAR, 


81 


the  Tsar  is  priest  as  well  as  king;  he  is  a  miracle -worker 
upon  the  l^eva;  he  administers  the  sacramental  bread  and 
wine  with  his  own  hands  at  his  coronation;  in  short,  like 
the  Shah  and  the  Sultan  in  their  respective  dominions,  the 
Tsar  is,  in  the  theory  of  Russian  Government — which  stands 
for  the  present  in  place  of  a  constitution^ — “the  Shadow  of 
God.”  Members  of  other  imperial  houses  may  change  their 
creed  to  win,  or  even  to  share,  a  throne;  but  it  is  not  so 
with  a  Romanoff.  In  Russia,  an  empire  by  no  means  homo¬ 
geneous  in  population,  this  thorough  and  personal  association  n 
of  Church  and  State  is  the  centre  of  the  centripetal  force 
which  is  grinding  foreign  races  into  Russians. 

The  grand  ambition  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  and  the 
high  moral  character  and  qualities  of  his  successor,  have  in 
our  time  cleared  the  Russian  court,  and  the  exercise  of  its 
autocratic  powers,  from  the  vagaries  of  a  period  when  there 
was  no  responsibility  to  a  dumb  people,  or  even  to  the  more 
enlightened  opinion  of  Western  Europe.  The  days  in  which, 
according  to  respected  authorities,  the  Empress  Anne  mar¬ 
ried  one  of  her  buffoons,  himself  a  prince  of  the  Empire,  to 
a  Calrnuck  dwarf,  and  made  them  pass  the  first  night  after 
their  wedding  upon  an  ice  couch  in  an  ice  house  upon  the 
Neva,  are  gone  forever.  So,  too,  is  the  issue  of  such  ukases 
as  that  by  which  Peter  the  Great  sought  to  subdue  heresy 
and  the  obstinacy  of  hairy  sectaries  by  a  decree  prohibiting 
the  wearing  of  beards,  when  every  one  who  dared  to  present 
himself  at  the  “Redeemer  Gate”  of  the  Moscow  Kremlin 
with  a  beard  upon  his  chin  was  caught  and  fined;  or  that 
by  which  the  Emperor  Paul,  in  1799,  with  the  same  object, 
forbade  the  use  of  shoe-strings  and  the  wearing  of  round 
hats.  All  this  is  gone,  but  the  personal  power  of  the  Tsar 
continues.  In  all  Russian  churches  the  most  earnest  prayer 
— that  without  which  no  service  is  complete — that  during 
which  heads  are  most  bowed  and  crossings  are  most  fre- 

4* 


) 


82 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


quent,  is  the  prayer  in  which  the  welfare  of  the  Tsar  and  of 
his  house  is  implored.  It  has  been  said  that  a  venturesome 
diplomatist  once  asked  the  Emperor  Nicholas  who  was  the 
most  distinguished  of  his  majesty’s  subjects  ?  And,  accord¬ 
ing  to  report,  the  Tsar  replied  that  the  most  distinguished 
Russian  was  he  whomsoever  the  Emperor  honored  by  speak¬ 
ing  to  him.  Even  Alexander  II.,  the  mildest  and  most  mod¬ 
ern  of  his  line,  could  declare,  Mussie  c’est  le  Tsar^’’  more 
truly  than  the  young  copyist  with  whose  name  I  commenced 
this  chapter  could  say,  in  after-days,  of  himself  and  France, 
^^IjjEtat  c'est  MoiP 

The  Russian  Press  is  a  sham,  inasmuch  as  its  existence 
leads  the  outside  world  to  suppose  that  there  is  within  the 
Empire  a  widely  based  expression  of  public  opinion.  I  am 
not  now  alluding  to  the  censorship  which  forbids  the  utter¬ 
ance  of  progressive  sentiments,  or  the  full  expression  of  hope 
for  a  constitutional  regime,  but  to  the  initial  fact  in  the  just 
comprehension  of  this  important  matter,  that  the  productions 
of  the  Russian  Press  are  not  open  to  more  than  one  in  a  hun¬ 
dred  of  the  Tsar’s  subjects,  because  of  their  ignorance  of  the 
meaning  of  letters.  Every  reader  of  a  newspaper  in  Russia, 
of  the  most  loyal,  and  even  servile,  of  the  issues  from  the 
Press,  is,  we  may  say,  a  marked  man,  because  as  a  rule  jour¬ 
nals  can  only  be  obtained  by  subscription  through  the  post- 
office.  Many  visitors  from  our  own  country  must  have 
learned  by  irritating  experience  the  truth  of  this  statement, 
when  they  have  found  their  English  newspapers  sequestrated, 
day  after  day,  because  they  were  not  subscribed  for  in  this 
manner.  In  1870,  including  printing  of  every  sort  and  kind, 
there  was  but  one  printing-press  in  Russia  for  every  sixteen 
thousand  of  the  population. 

The  life  of  a  journalist  in  Russia  must  be,  to  say  the  least, 
uneasy,  if  we  may  presume  that  he  has  any  opinions  of  his 
own.  There  are  two  newspapers  published  in  St.  Petersburg 


CENSOKSHIP. 


83 


which  are  not  designed  for  the  Russian  people— the  Journal 
de  JPetershou7^g,  printed  in  French,  and  the  jSt.  Petersburg¬ 
er  Zeitung^  printed  in  German ;  the  latter  being  the  organ  of 
the  German-speaking  people  of  Russia,  as  the  former  is  of  the 
Russian  Foreign  Office.  These  journals  are,  of  course,  valu¬ 
able  rather  for  information  relating  to  external  than  to  inter¬ 
nal  affairs. 

A  writer  long  resident  in  Russia,  one  who  has  already 
attracted  the  unfavorable  notice  of  the  Tsar’s  Government 
for  his  too  accurate  and  well-informed  acquaintance  with  im¬ 
perial  arrangements,  has  lately  described  Russian  newspapers, 
and  the  regime  to  which  they  are  subject.  He  says  of  the 
censorship  that  it  appertains  to  the  department  of  the  Min¬ 
ister  of  the  Interior,  and  is  carried  out  either  by  special  com¬ 
mittees,  as  at  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  Warsaw,  and  Odessa, 
or  by  individual  censors  in  such  towns  as  Kief,  Kazan,  Riga, 
Dorpat,  Mittau,  Revel,  and  Wilna,  who  have  to  report  their 
decisions  for  confirmation  to  the  Chief  Board  of  Censors  at 
St.  Petersburg.  The  committees  are  composed  of  a  presi¬ 
dent,  and  three  senior  and  six  junior  censors,  with  an  inspect¬ 
or  of  printing-offices  and  book  depots,  and  his  assistants.  The 
president  and  three  chief  censors  meet  at  least  once  a  week, 
when  the  various  manuscripts  and  journals  are  registered, 
and  either  licensed  or  prohibited.  All  writings  which  are 
directed,  first,  against  the  dogmas  of  the  National  Church; 
secondly,  against  the  form  of  government  existing  in  Rus¬ 
sia,  and  especially  against  the  person  of  the  Emperor,  or  any 
member  of  the  imperial  family;  thirdly,  against  morality; 
and,  fourthly,  those  containing  offensive  attacks  on  any  private 
person,  or  calumnies  of  any  kind,  are  prohibited  by  the  cen¬ 
sorship.  No  communication  respecting  the  imperial  family 
may  be  printed  until  permission  has  been  obtained  from  the 
Minister  of  the  Imperial  Court.  Not  only  writings,  but  pict¬ 
ures  and  music,  are  subject  to  the  censorship;  and  care  is 


84  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

taken  to  prohibit  the  latter  when  any  thing  resembling  the 
airs  of  the  Polish  insurgents  is  discovered  to  have  been  intro¬ 
duced.  It  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  editors  whether 
they  will  place  themselves  under  the  preliminary  preventive 
censorship  or  not.  In  the  latter  case,  they  are  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  Press  Director — an  official  also  belonging  to 
the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  Under  this  regime,  articles  are 
not  subject  to  official  examination  and  revision  before  they 
make  their  appearance  in  the  columns  of  the  paper ;  although 
in  cases  where  the  Government  has  had  an  inkling  of  some 
more  than  usually  dangerous  effusion,  the  whole  issue  has 
been  seized  as  it  left  the  printing-machine.  The  usual  meth¬ 
od  of  proceeding — which  in  its  main  features  appears  to  have 
been  borrowed  from  the  Press  Laws  of  the  second  French 
Empire  — is,  for  the  head  authority  of  the  particular  branch 
of  the  j)ublic  service  that  considers  itself  unwarrantably  as¬ 
sailed  to  lay  a  complaint  before  the  Press  Director,  should  he 
indeed  not  have  already  taken  the  initiative.  In  either  case, 
he  gravely  cautions  the  offending  printer  to  be  more  careful 
for  the  future.  A  repetition  of  the  offense  is  followed  by  a 
repetition  of  the  warning;  but  should  three  such  remon¬ 
strances  prove  ineffectual,  the  offending  periodical  is  sus¬ 
pended  for  a  period  not  exceeding  three  months.  If,  on  its 
re-appearance,  it  obstinately  persists  in  its  former  course,  it 
receives  three  further  warnings,  and  is  finally  suppressed.  A 
preliminary  caution,  too,  is  sometimes  sent  round  to  the  dif¬ 
ferent  editors,  forbidding  them  to  mention  a  certain  subject 
at  all,  or  enjoining  them  to  take  only  a  particular  view  of 
it.  This  was  especially  the  case  with  regard  to  the  Khiva 
expedition.  For  accidentally  disregarding  a  similar  injunc¬ 
tion,  the  Moscoio  Gazette  {Moscauer  Zeitung) — the  organ  of 
the  German  element  in  Central  Russia,  and  most  ably  con¬ 
ducted  by  M.  Katkof — recently  underwent  a  temporary  sus¬ 
pension.” 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  JOUENALISTS.  85 

This  system  is  not  calculated  to  give  a  fresh,  progressive, 
vigorous,  and  independent  tone  to  the  Press  of  Russia.  The 
Press  Director  is,  under  this  regime,  virtually  the  editor  of 
the  whole  Press.  The  writer  above  quoted  says :  “  The  larger 
St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  papers  are  almost  all  under  his 
control.”  If  an  English  statesman  were  in  friendly  talk  on 
this  subject  with  such  men  as  Prince  Gortschakoff  or  the 
Grand  Duke  Constantine,  men  of  liberal  mind  and  large  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  forces  that  mold  and  govern  the  actions 
of  mankind,  I  am  sure  he  would  be  told  that  the  Russian 
Press  is  not  injuriously  controlled ;  that  the  Government  of 
the  Tsar  would  not  only  sanction,  but  that  it  desired,  that  re¬ 
forms  and  even  radical  changes  in  the  mode  of  government 
should  be  discussed  and  examined.  Biit  how?  It  can  not 
be  doubted  that  a  journalist  desiring,  say  the  spread  of  edu¬ 
cation,  and  convinced  that  it  will  never  come  until  representa¬ 
tive  institutions  are  established,  which  shall  in  some  measure 
control  and  determine  the  action  of  Government,  may  express 
an  opinion  that  if  it  should  seem  good  to  his  Imperial  Maj¬ 
esty,  our  august  Imperator,  in  the  progress  of  the  century, 
and  when  to  the  wisdom  of  his  Government  it  shall  appear 
that  the  Russian  people  are  fitted  to  bear  the  burden  of  so 
great  responsibility,  then,  if  it  please  the  Tsar  to  establish  rep¬ 
resentative  institutions,  these  will  further  the  work  of  civiliza¬ 
tion.”  But  he  dare  not  say  that  such  institutions  are  good, 
and  ought  to  be  established,  without  showing  that  he  regards 
the  existing  order  of  government  as  the  very  best  that  human 
hands,  assisted  by  celestial  influences,  could  construct,  and 
that  he  desires  nothing  except  through  the  bounty  of  tlie  Tsar 
and  his  majesty’s  Government. 

Occasionally  the  Russian  papers  exhibit  their  differences 
from  each  other  in  a  leaning  to  Germany  or  to  France,  either 
tendency  not  being  sufiiciently  strong  or  external  in  its  aims, 
or  offensive  to  the  Government,  to  bring  down  upon  them  the 


86  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN". 

interference  of  the  Press  Director.  A  Russian  journal  which 
desires  a  successful,  untroubled  existence  must  turn  its  eyes 
from  the  acts  of  Government,  bestowing  now  and  then  indis¬ 
criminate  praise  without  scrutiny. 

The  writer  to  whom  I  am  already  indebted  gives  a  fine  ex¬ 
ample  with  reference  to  the  'Wjedomosti^  a  paper  founded  by 
Peter  the  Great,  and  which  used  to  represent  the  Russian 
Liberal  party.  A  few  months  ago  its  editor,  M.  Korsch,  who 
by  his  sympathy  in  the  cause  of  reform  has  helped  to  raise  it 
in  public  opinion,  was  summoned  before  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  and  told  that  the  paper  was  of  such  radical  tenden¬ 
cies  that  he  must  resign  the  control  of  it.  The  editor  sought 
to  mollify  the  ministerial  anger  by  offering  to  make  certain 
changes  in  his  staff,  but  without  effect ;  and  as  in  Russia,  in 
matters  connected  with  the  Press,  a  ministerial  has  all  the  force 
of  an  imperial  ukase,  nothing  remained  but  to  quietly  obey, 
when  the  paper  was  placed  under  the  immediate  supervision 
of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction,  and  supplied  with  an 
entirely  new  staff,  appointed  on  the  express  condition  of  pub¬ 
lishing  as  leading  articles  all  communications  which  the  Min¬ 
istry  may  think  proper  to  forward,  and  of  defending  the  Min¬ 
istry  itself  on  all  occasions  through  thick  and  thin.”  One  is 
not  surprised  to  learn  that  even  in  Russia,  under  these  cir¬ 
cumstances,  “  influence  and  circulation  alike  have  been  dwin¬ 
dling  away.”  Only  those  who  have  nothing  to  lose  can  afford 
to  attack  the  Government  in  Russia.  M.  Korsch,  the  de¬ 
nounced  editor  of  the  Wjedomosti,  “  endeavored  to  buy  the 
BussJci  Mir,  or  Bussian  World  [the  organ  of  General  Tcher- 
nayeff],  at  that  time  under  suspension.  It  seems  that  its  pro¬ 
prietor,  finding  he  was  losing  money,  hit  upon  the  expedient 
of  attacking  the  War-ofiice,  both  with  regard  to  the  admin¬ 
istration  of  Turkistan  and  the  Kirghiz  rebellions  of  a  few 
years  ago,  until  he  succeeded  in  getting  his  paper  suspended, 
hoping  that  things  w'ould  take  a  turn  for  the  better  in  three 


RUSSIA  NOT  RUSSIAN. 


87  • 

months,  when  he  proposed  to  start  afresh  with  all  the  prestige 
pertaining  to  a  martyr — always  a  certain  advantage  under  a 
despotic  form  of  government.” 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  neglect  of  social  improve¬ 
ment  and  reform,  when  the  work  is  much  less  conspicuous 
than  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  (which  no  power  but  that 
of  the  Tsar  could  decree,  as  it  affected  the  nobles  in  their 
property),  is  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the  misdirected  train¬ 
ing  of  Russian  statesmen.  In  the  absence  of  representative 
institutions  and  of  a  free  Press,  politicians  find  in  the  line  of 
diplomacy  and  the  field  of  foreign  affairs  the  only  road  by 
which  it  is  possible  to  arrive  at  a  great  reputation.  The  eyes 
and  thoughts  of  Russian  statesmen  are  in  consequence  averted 
from  their  country,  and  their  ears  are  closed  to  appeals  in  the 
language  of  Russia.  There  is  no  free  and  widely  studied  de¬ 
bate  in  which  they  can  hope  to  win  influence  by  making  a 
great  name  throughout  the  Empire ;  the  only  path  to  distinc¬ 
tion  is  by  successful  manipulation  of  Russian  influence  upon 
external  politics,  by  wielding  the  pen  which  is  weighted,  at 
the  advice  of  the  writer,  with  the  armed  forces  of  Russia,  or 
the  sword  which  leads  those  forces  to  battle  and  conquest. 

And  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  work  of  leading 
Russia  from  a  system  of  government  which  has  resemblance 
in  system  more  to  that  of  the  Sultan  than  to  any  other  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  Europe,  is  beset  with  many  and  great  difficulties. 
Russia  is  not  yet  Russian.  All  the  pressure  of  the  superin¬ 
cumbent  machinery  of  Government,  exercised  in  the  name  of 
God  as  well  as  of  the  Tsar,  has  not  as  yet  resulted  in  a  fusion 
of  the  diverse  populations  of  the  Empire.  To  Germany,  and 
to  her  war  with  France,  from  which  he  wisely  held  aloof,  the 
Tsar  is  indebted  for  the  establishment  of  a  military  system 
which,  in  spite  of  its  obvious  faults  in  diverting  productive 
labor  and  diminishing  the  wealth  of  Russia,  is,  in  fact,  the 
most  powerful  agency  which,  perhaps,  in  the  circumstances  of 


88 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


that  Empire,  could  have  been  devised  by  the  Tsar,  not  only  for 
the  amalgamation  of  his  heterogeneous  subjects,  but  also  for 
securing  progress  in  general  education.  In  Russia  in  Europe 
there  are  Mohammedans  speaking  dialects  of  Turkish  and 
Arabic;  Poles  clinging  to  their  national  language;  and  Ger¬ 
man-speaking  people  of  whom  probably  one  million  are  actual¬ 
ly  natives  of  VcitCTlciudj  and  aliens  in  Russia.  In  the  towns, 
the  Mohammedan,  the  Pole,  and  the  German  keep,  as  far  as 
possible,  aloof  from  each  other  and  from  the  Russian.  They 
do  not  intermix  or  intermarry.  The  poor  of  Warsaw  do  not 
understand  the  Russian  language.  The  German  colonies  upon 
the  Volga  are  distinguished  not  only  for  the  general  superi¬ 
ority  of  their  houses,  but  throughout  their  life  for  a  higher 
standard  of  comfort  than  is  common  in  the  Russian  towns  a 
result  of  their  superior  education.  And  in  the  densely  pop¬ 
ulated  Mohammedan  quarters  of  towns  such  as  Kazan  and 
Saratof,  there  are  multitudes  of  people  preserving  their  relig¬ 
ion,  their  customs,  and  their  race  unmixed,  though  they  are 
regarded,  like  the  Jews  of  Odessa,  with  dislike  and  contempt 
by  their  Muscovite  masters,  who  do  not  forget  or  forgive  the 
barbarities  practiced  by  the  forefathers  of  these  Tartars  upon 
the  persons  and  the  buildings  of  their  own  ancestors.  There 
is  no  pretense  or  affection  or  sympathy  between  the  German¬ 
speaking  people  and  the  genuine  Russians.  This  is  perhaps 
most  conspicuous  in  the  Baltic  provinces,  where  in  line  with 
the  treatment  of  native  Germans  there  is  always  a  train  laid 
which  may  be  exploded  at  any  moment  into  a  cams  belli  by 
the  chancellor  of  either  Empire.  Germans  in  the  Korth  and 
Jews  in  the  South  are  hated,  not  only  because  their  presence 
is  inharmonious  with  Panslavonian  ideas,  but  rather  for  their 
superior  success  in  trade  and  commerce.  The  poor  Moham¬ 
medans  have  no  such  guilt,  but  it  is  traditional  policy  with 
the  faithful  of  the  Eastern  Church  to  trample  upon  Islam. 

The  new  military  system  of  Russia,  which  excepts  neither 


EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  SEEPS. 


89 


creed  nor  race,  which  carries  the  youth  of  all,  German,  Polish, 
Mohammedan,  as  well  as  Russian,  far  away  from  home,  to 
make  all  alike  soldiers  of  the  Tsar,  is  the  severe  but  effectual 
school  in  which  these  distinctions  are  being:  most  effaced. 
One  can  see  this  in  the  streets,  in  the  comradeship  of  oblique¬ 
eyed  Tartars  with  bright  Armenians  from  the  Caucasus,  of 
golden-haired  boys  from  Finland  with  native  Russians  from 
the  South,  all  speaking,  or  trying  to  speak,  the  language  in 
which  they  are  drilled,  and  by  the  knowledge  of  which  they 
can  alone  hope  to  win  higher  pay  and  improved  position.  In 
every  branch  of  the  military  service  there  are  some  education¬ 
al  facilities  and  even  requirements.  To  these  the  troops  are 
led  by  self-interest,  and  in  some  cases  by  stern  punishments. 
Every  impulse  in  the  direction  of  personal  advantage  suggests 
to  them  to  make  the  Russian  language  their  own,  and  to  di¬ 
rect  their  spiritual  ideas  toward  that  truest  index  of  national 
loyalty — the  Russian  Church.  The  Russian  military  system 
is  probably  accomplishing  as  great  a  social  reformation  as 
that  which  was  achieved  by  the  abolition  of  serfdom. 

That  grand  measure,  the  main  glory  of  the  present  reign, 
has  not  yet  effected  all  the  improvement  of  the  Russian  peas¬ 
ant  and  his  tillage  which  the  most  sanguine  of  its  advocates 
expected  would  immediately  follow  the  operation  of  the  great 
ukase  of  1861,  and  the  belligerent  power  of  Russia  is  reduced 
because  of  the  unimproving  condition  of  agriculture.  Pri¬ 
marily,  this  is  due  to  the  general  ignorance  and  poverty  of 
the  peasantry ;  and,  secondarily,  to  the  land  system  and  the 
onerous  taxation  of  Russia.  It  was  very  absurd  to  expect 
that  twenty-two  millions  of  people  would,  at  a  stroke  of  the 
Tsar’s  pen,  advance  by  a  leap  from  the  display  of  the  charac¬ 
teristics  of  slavery  to  the  exhibition  of  the  virtues  of  people 
who  have  for  ages  sustained  the  ennobling  cares  and  the  re¬ 
sponsibilities  of  personal  freedom.  It  may  be  said,  without 
fear  of  contradiction,  that  the  Russian  peasantry  will  never  be 


90 


THBOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


as  the  rural  population  of  Germany  or  Switzerland,  or  even 
of  less  educated  France,  until  they  too  are  instructed,  and  un¬ 
til  they,  like  those,  are  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  a  sub¬ 
stantial  and  duly  responsible  share  in  the  Government  of  the 
country.  In  many  villages  or  communes  of  Russia,  the  peas¬ 
ant  is  disposed  to  say  that  the  Emperor’s  benign  policy  has 
done  him  no  good,  inasmuch  as  it  has  resulted  in  giving  him 
a  harder  master  in  the  commune  than  he  had  in  the  proprie¬ 
tor.  The  advances  which  the  Government  has  made  to  the 
peasantry  for  the  enfranchisement  of  their  lands,  as  well  as 
the  revenue  resulting  from  taxation,  are  secured  by  making 
each  commune  equally  with  each  individual  responsible  for 
payment.  In  18'72,  the  State  had  advanced  no  less  than  eighty 
million  pounds  in  respect  of  sixty-six  million  acres;  and  if 
the  peasant  fails  to  pay  to  the  commune  his  due  share  of  the 
interest  and  sinking  fund  upon  the  aggregate  sum  which 
stands  against  the  name  of  the  village  and  its  local  govern¬ 
ment  in  the  books  of  the  Empire,  he  is  of  course  not  unlikely 
to  meet  with  severity  from  his  fellows,  who  must  make  good 
any  deficiency  on  the  part  of  lazy  or  dissolute  defaulters. 

Perhaps  at  this  point  we  may  usefully  make  a  brief,  and 
therefore  necessarily  imperfect,  reference  to  the  Russian  land 
system,  merely  in  order  to  exhibit  the  blighting  effect  of  the 
communal  system  upon  agriculture.  In  the  primitive  state, 
the  Russian  people  used  land,  and,  when  that  was  exhausted, 
went  farther  afield  for  more.  By  degrees,  in  fertile  places, 
when  there  was  no  more  land  to  be  had,  this  method  began 
to  assume  the  aspect  of  private  property  by  right  of  posses¬ 
sion.  But  the  community  increased,  the  land  did  not ;  the 
fulfillment  of  the  obligations  of  individuals  to  the  State  and  to 
proprietors  was  demanded,  and  could  not  be  met,  according 
to  Russian  ways  of  agriculture,  unless  every  man  had  land 
from  which  to  earn  his  contribution  to  the  general  liability. 
So  it  came  about  that  the  system  of  periodical  redistribution 


IGNORANCE  OF  THE  PEASANTRY. 


91 


m 

of  the  cultivated  land  by  each  commune  was  established,  and 
under  this  system  the  Russian  peasant  has  no  security  of  ten¬ 
ure,  no  certainty  as  to  his  payment  to  the  commune,  and 
through  the  commune  to  the  State,  for  these  things  are  de¬ 
termined  by  the  circumstances  of  his  neighbors.  Mr.  D.  M. 
Wallace,  who  has  lived  in  Russia,  says:  ‘^The  allotment  of 
the  land  is  by  far  the  most  important  event  in  Russian  peas¬ 
ant  life,  and  the  arrangement  can  not  be  made  without  end¬ 
less  talking  and  discussion.  After  the  number  of  shares  for 
each  family  has  been  decided,  the  distribution  of  the  lots 
gives  rise  to  new  difficulties.  The  families  who  have  plenti¬ 
fully  manured  their  land  strive  to  get  back  their  old  lots,  and 
the  commune  respects  their  claims  so  far  as  these  are  consist¬ 
ent  with  the  new  arrangement ;  but  it  often  happens  that  it 
is  impossible  to  conciliate  private  and  communal  interests, 
and  in  such  cases  the  former  are  sacrificed  in  a  way  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  by  men  of  Anglo-Saxon  race.” 

This  will  account  in  a  great  measure  for  the  inefficiency  of 
Russian  agriculture  where  the  communal  system  prevails ;  but 
that  is  not  universal,  and  greater  intelligence  would  bring 
about  a  reform  in  the  method  of  Russian  agriculture,  which 
is  much  needed.  A  three-course  system  of  farming  —  one 
field  of  rye  or  wheat,  one  field  of  spring-corn  (oats,  etc.),  and 
one  field  fallow — obtains  over  nearly  the  whole  of  European 
Russia. 

This  inferior  condition  of  the  Russian  people  affects  not 
only  their  agriculture,  but  also  their  foreign  trade.  Odessa  is 
perplexed  because  the  corn  trade  from  that  port  is  dwindling; 
and  we  are  told,  upon  official  authority,  that  a  peculiarity  of 
the  bills  in  circulation  in  South  Russia  is,  that  ten  per  cent, 
of  them  are  given  or  indorsed  by  persons  who  can  not  sign 
their  own  names,  but  get  it  done  by  proxy  at  a  notary’s ;  and 
from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent,  more  are  omitted,  and  in¬ 
dorsed  by  parties  who  can  only  just  sign  their  names,  and  are 


92 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


not  able  to  write  any  thing  in  addition.”  The  Odessa  Com¬ 
mittee  on  Trade  and  Manufactures  have  reported  to  the  Coun¬ 
cil  for  Trade  and  Manufactures  in  St.  Petersburg  that  the 
commerce  of  their  town,  by  far  the  most  important  in  South 
Russia,  ‘‘is  not  only  undergoing  a  temporary  crisis,  but  is 
actually  entering  a  period  of  absolute  decline.”  The  “  tem¬ 
porary  crisis”  is  due  to  the  failure  of  the  two  last  harvests ; 
and  Vice-consul  Webster  reports  from  Kherson  that  “nearly 
every  body  in  South  Russia  will  be  bankrupt  ”  if  the  harvest 
of  this  year  be  not  sufficient.  “  The  commercial  banks,”  he 
writes,  “  whose  principal  occupation  now  is  renewing  or  pro¬ 
longing  old  bills,  have  been  assisted  by  the  State  bank,  and 
will  be  able  to  make  way  till  the  probable  result  of  the  har¬ 
vest  of  1876  is  known.  Should  the  harvest  fail,  a  financial 
crash  is  inevitable.”  The  Odessa  Committee  find  that  Kiko- 
laief  and  Sebastopol,  having  become  places  of  export,  are 
drawing  away  their  trade,  and*  that  much  of  the  produce  in 
the  fertile  district  of  Kief,  which  was  formerly  brought  for 
shipment  to  Odessa,  is  now  conveyed  by  railway  to  the  ports 
of  the  Baltic,  the  freight  from  Konigsberg  to  England  being 
less  than  half  that  to  Odessa,  or  in  the  proportion  of  three  to 
seven. 

“  But  it  is  not  in  the  opening  of  these  new  outlets  for  Rus¬ 
sian  grain  that  the  committee  see  the  danger  to  Odessa.” 
“The  competition  of  Kikolaief,  Sebastopol,  or  even  Konigs¬ 
berg,  could  not  prevent  Odessa  continuing  to  be  the  natural 
outlet  for  a  tract  of  country  quite  sufficient  for  a  large  remu¬ 
nerative  trade.”  The  danger  is  one  which  threatens,  not 
Odessa  only,  but  all  Russia;  and  it  comes  from  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi— from  the  United  States  of  America.  Of  the 
nine  million  to  fourteen  million  quarters  of  foreign  wheat  re¬ 
quired  by  England,  the  proportions  supplied  by  Russia  and 
the  United  States  have  been  as  follows  during  the  last  seven 
years : 


THE  ARTEL  OF  ODESSA. 


93 


Russia.  United  States. 
Per  Cent.  Per  Cent. 


1867  .  44  14 

1868  . 32  18 

1869  . 32  18 

1870. . 38  21 

1871..... . 40  23 

1872 . 31  24 

1873. . 21  44 


The  committee  say  they  have  no  positive  information  for 
1874,  but  they  have  reason  to  believe  the  result  is  less  favor¬ 
able  to  Russia  than  that  of  1873.  The  figures  given  above 
show  that  in  seven  years  Russia  and  the  United  States  have, 
in  this  very  important  matter,  changed  positions.  In  1867 
Russia  supplied  44  per  cent,  and  the  United  States  14  per 
cent,  of  England’s  demand  for  foreign  wheat;  in  1873  the 
United  States  supplied  44  per  cent,  and  Russia  only  21  per 
cent.  The  Odessa  Committee  have  no  illusions ;  they  in¬ 
dulge  no  hope  that  even  a  most  prosperous  harvest  in  Rus¬ 
sia  will  turn  the  scale ;  but  rather  believe  that  the  United 
States  will  take  a  still  higher  position  among  the  grain-pro¬ 
ducers  of  the  world.  Congress  has  granted  2,000,000  dollars 
for  deepening  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  these  works  the  cost  of  the  transport  of  wheat  from 
Chicago  to  England  will  be  diminished  by  more  than  50  per 
cent.  The  Odessa  Committee  see  in  a  near  future  the  United 
States  so  absolutely  the  controller  of  the  prices  of  the  Lon¬ 
don  market  that  we  shall  be  utterly  unable  to  compete  with 
her.”  And  in  this  race  it  must  be  admitted  that  they,  in 
common  with  all  Russian  enterprise,  are  heavily  weighted  by 
the  ofticial  system  of  the  Empire.  The  Artel  (Association  of 
Workmen)  has  a  monopoly  of  Custom-house  work;  and  the 
committee  find  that  the  cost  of  the-necessary  Custom-house 
formalities  is,  on  the  average,  seven  times,  and  for  some 
classes  of  goods,  eleven  times,  more  than  before  this  associa- 


94 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


tion  was  formed.  It  is  estimated  that  the  annual  sum  paid 
to  the  Artel  of  Odessa  amounts  to  400,000  rubles,  ‘‘  and  this 
for  no  service  rendered,  as  the  Artel  in  no  way  dispenses 
with  the  necessity  of  employing  the  workmen  who  were  em¬ 
ployed  before  the  institution  of  the  Artel.”  The  commit¬ 
tee  further  complain  that  the  inspection  of  goods  commences 
at  eleven  and  closes  at  two,  which  they  think  a  somewhat 
absurd  indulgence  of  Russian  bureaucracy.  That  powerful 
caste — for  the  official  class  has  a  tendency  to  become  such — 
is,  of  course,  directly  interested  in  maintaining  the  trouble¬ 
some  system  by  which  “the  declarations  required  for  the 
formalities  of  clearing  goods  pass  through  twenty -nine  dif¬ 
ferent  hands.” 

But  impartial  critics  must  admit  that,  while  stating  noth- 
inor  untrue,  the  Odessa  merchants  have  not  been  careful  to 
relieve  their  picture,  and  that  they  employ  the  very  dark  col¬ 
oring  of  their  foreground  to  show  up  the  remedial  measures 
which,  with  the  natural  dependence  of  people  living  under  a 
despotic  and  protective  system,  they  hope  for  from  the  Tsar. 
Such  tactics  are  natural.  When  Marshal  MacMahon  was 
Governor -general  of  Algeria,  a  disastrous  earthquake  occur¬ 
red,  by  which  hundreds  of  houses  were  destroyed,  and  many 
people  impoverished.  I  shall  never  forget  the  scene,  nor  the 
spectacle  of  the  emigrants  crowding  round  his  excellency,  and 
declaring  that  if  the  emperor  did  not  rebuild  their  houses, 
they  would  return  to  France.  In  like  manner  these  enfants 
d^etat  of  Russia  want  the  Tsar  to  make  Odessa  a  manufact¬ 
uring  centre,  in  spite  of  the  facts  that  it  is  bounded  on  one 
side  by  the  Euxine,  that  fuel  is  scarce,  and  that  water  must 
be  paid  for.  Very  characteristic  of  the  evils  of  Russian 
Government  is  their  proposal  to  exempt  manufactures  from 
all  taxation,  and  their  belief  that  the  appointment  of  a  viceroy 
instead  of  a  governor -general  “would  be  the  best  guaranty 
for  the  effectual  carrying-out  of  the  measures  they  have  sug- 


BUSSIAN  COEN. 


95 


gested.”  They  want  the  State  to  help  them  to  wash  wool, 
and  to  make  depots  for  colonial  goods,  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  the  proprietor  of  the  only  wool-washing  establishment  in 
Odessa  lately  hanged  himself,  a  suicide  which  was  followed 
by  that  of  the  principal  importer  of  colonial  goods. 

But  perhaps  England  has  most  direct  interest  in  the  state¬ 
ments  which  have  reference  to  the  export  of  wheat.  From  a 
thoughtless  glance  at  the  figures,  held  up  by  the  Odessa  mer¬ 
chants,  it  might  be  supposed  that  our  supply  from  Russia 
had  in  seven  years  fallen  off  by  more  than  one-half,  from  44 
per  cent,  in  1867,  to  21  per  cent,  in  1873.  But  this  is  not  so. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  increase  from  Sebastopol  and  Konigs- 
b erg,  the  export  of  cereals  from  Odessa  in  1867  amounted  to 
2,674,978  quarters,  and  to  2,648,000  quarters  in  1873;  while 
the  value  of  the  export  in  the  latter  year  was  greater  by 
15,200,169  rubles  than  in  1867.  In  1874  there  was  an  in¬ 
crease  in  quantity  as  well  as  value ;  and  while  we  learn  from 
these  facts  that  the  Russian  supply  is  not  declining,  we  can 
not  escape  the  conviction  forced  upon  us  by  the  table  of  fig¬ 
ures  given  above,  that  Russian  agriculture  is  stationary  in 
comparison  with  the  boundless  and  successful  activity  of  the 
IJnited  States. 

In  all  this  there  is  much  that  may  be  amended  with  ad¬ 
vantage;  but  Russia  is  not  a  fertile  country.  We  hear  of 
it  as  a  great  corn-exporting  land,  and  are  apt  to  compare  it, 
as  a  whole,  in  fertility  with  such  rich  soils  as  those  of  the 
Danubian  provinces,  or  the  alluvial  valleys  of  British  India 
and  of  the  IJnited  States.  In  this  important  matter  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  make  a  greater  error.  The  present  writer 
has  visited  Russia  twice,  in  north  and  south,  has  passed  lei¬ 
surely  through  the  length  and,  to  a  great  extent,  the  breadth 
of  the  European  Empire,  and  has  also  seen  something  of  the 
Asiatic  dominions  of  Russia.  In  these  travels  no  fact  is 
more  constantly  impressed  upon  the  mind  than  the  iinequaled 


96 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


}30verty  of  its  soil.  From  the  frontier  of  Russia  west  of 
Warsaw  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  from  the  capital,  through 
Moscow  and  Nijni,  to  Astrakhan,  is  a  journey  of  about  three 
thousand  miles.  The  constant  feature  of  that  route  is  white 
sand,  the  worst  and  most  hopeless,  thankless  soil  for  cultiva¬ 
tion.  There  is  no  natural  fertility ;  and  this  is  exhibited  by 
the  surest  proofs.  There  are  none  but  stunted  trees  other 
than  the  pine  and  fir,  and  the  landscape  is  therefore  without 
a  charm  which  is  present  in  every  English  county.  It  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  the  scrubby  wastes  of  the  Crimea 
would  repay  the  cost  of  cultivation,  if  that  were  attempted ; 
but  there  can  be  no  question  that,  taking  the  Empire  from 
north  to  south,  and  east  to  west,  Russia  is,  and  will  remain, 
the  poorest  country  in  Europe.  There  are  rich  lands  in  Rus¬ 
sia  in  the  south-west;  but  the  existence  of  these,  to  which 
the  Emperor  Nicholas  would  gladly  have  added  the  territory 
now  known  as  Roumania,  does  not  neutralize  the  fact  that, 
for  the  most  part,  the  Empire  consists  of  plains  of  white  sand, 
which,  if  Central  Russia  were  rainless  as  Central  and  South¬ 
ern  Persia,  would  be  arid  and  irreclaimable  desert,  because 
there  are  no  mountains  in  which  water  might  be  stored  for 
irrigation.  It  is  noteworthy,  also,  that  the  recent  conquests 
of  Russia  in  Asia  have  been  of  the  same  quality,  and,  so  far 
from  adding  to  the  wealth  of  the  Empire,  are  probably  bur¬ 
densome  to  the  revenue.  ExcejDt  where  Persian  territory 
borders  upon  the  Caspian  in  its  southern  extremity,  Russia 
is  sole  owner  of  the  shores  of  that  sea ;  but  there  is  hardly 
a  mile  of  her  large  frontage  upon  the  Caspian  which  for  agri¬ 
cultural  purposes  is  worth  the  cost  of  occupation. 

These  facts  augment  the  anxieties  of  her  neighbors.  Not 
only  on  the  Pruth,  but  east  of  the  Black  Sea,  where  her  Geor¬ 
gian  and  Persian  conquests  border  upon  the  Shah’s  province 
of  Azerbaijan,  and  again  east  of  the  Caspian,  where  the  At- 
trek  marks  Iier  off  from  the  Persian  Provihce  of  Astrabad, 


REVENUE  OF  RUSSIA. 


97 


Russia  looks  upon  territory  of  great  natural  fertility  which 
is  not  her  own.  And  in  her  approach  to  the  northern  bor¬ 
ders  of  India  she  occupies  a  position  wherein  this  contrast 
of  her  own  poverty  with  her  neighbor’s  wealth  is  even  more 
remarkable. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  terrible  weight  of  her  increasing 
debt  and  unproductive  expenditure,  her  people  appear  to  be 
cheaply  governed,  if  we  compare  them  with  other  popula¬ 
tions  of  Europe.  But  as  they  are  poorer  than  any  other  peo¬ 
ple  of  that  continent,  the  comparison  would  be  unfair.  It 
Avould  be  a  very  nice  question  to  decide  how  far  they  have 
been  enabled  to  support  their  burdens  by  the  largely  unpro¬ 
ductive  expenditure  upon  railways  and  other  public  works, 
the  cost  of  which  has  been  chiefly  provided  for  by  English 
capital.  The  revenue  gathered  from  a  population  which 
approaches  (including  the  Asiatic  dominions  of  Russia) 
90,000,000,  does  not  amount  to  £77,000,000  —  much  less 
than  £1  per  head.  Great  as  is  the  cost  of  the  Russian  army 
— £23,716,000  in  1874— they  “drank  themselves  out  of  it” 
with  the  exhibition  of  a  surplus ;  for  this  people  who,  in 
company  with  all  their  Northern  neighbors  to  the  extrem¬ 
ity  of  Ireland,  are  among  the  most  drunken  in  Europe,  con¬ 
tributed  £27,609,000  in  1874  to  the  revenue  by  means  of 
excise  duties  on  spirits  and  other  intoxicating  drinks.  By 
this  means,  and  by  the  poll-tax,  nearly  three-fifths  of  the 
revenue  are  provided,  the  poll-tax  yielding  in  the  same  year 
no  less  than  122,000,000  rubles.  To  what  extent  Russian 
ability  in  the  matter  of  taxation  has  been  assisted  by  the  an¬ 
nual  expenditure  of  £12,000,000  to  £15,000,000  of  borrow¬ 
ed  money,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  determine.  But  it  is  clear 
that  Russia  has  borrowed  about  £70,000,000  for  the  con¬ 
struction  of  railways,  and  I  can  not  accept  the  argument  of 
the  JEconomist  that  this  great  sum  “  is  at  least  no  more  than 
can  be  afforded,  even  if  the  railways  are  directly  and  in- 

5 


98 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAN. 


directly  unprofitable,  because  the  interest  of  these  loans  is 
charged  in  the  accounts,  and  there  is  still  a  balance  of  rev¬ 
enue  and  expenditure,  or  even  a  small  surplus.”  To  uphold 
this  proposition,  it  would  be  necessary  to  prove  that  Russia 
can  maintain  this  equilibrium  when  the  annual  expenditure 
of  £15,000,000  of  borrowed  money  is  discontinued;  and,  from 
all  that  I  have  lately  seen  of  Russia,  I  have  no  confidence  in 
the  statement  that  this  outlay,  which  now  produces  an  income 
of  only  £2,132,000,  will  be  remunerative.  Of  course,  I  do 
not  deny  that  railways  are  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the 
Russian  Empire. 

The  Government  of  Russia  rewards  distinguished  citizens 
and  successful  traders  who  are  loyal  and  respected,  by  making 
them  free  from  all  taxation.  There  are  probably  four  or  five 
thousand  of  these  privileged  untaxed  citizens  in  Moscow,  and 
it  is  not  ordained  that,  paying  nothing,  they  shall  have  no 
voice  in  the  general  expenditure.  Quite  the  contrary.  Own¬ 
ers  of  a  hundred  arpents  of  land,  which  is  the  qualification 
for  one  who  has  the  legal  privileges  of  a  “proprietor,”  elect 
in  great  part  the  provincial  assemblies,  which  elect  the  provin¬ 
cial  judges;  and  perhaps  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  sys¬ 
tem  to  be  more  strongly  marked  with  injustice  than  one  in 
which  all  those  most  able  to  pay  are  exempt  from  taxation, 
and  have  a  powerful  voice  in  the  election  of  judges  who  can 
not  afford  to  disregard  the  claims  of  important  constituents 
because  their  tenure  of  the  judicial  office  is  only  for  three 
years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  they  must,  if  they  desire  to 
continue  their  functions,  again  submit  their  candidature  to 
the  provincial  assemblies.  It  should,  however,  be  said  that 
these  provincial  judges  can  not  sentence  a  prisoner  to  more 
than  one  year’s  confinement,  and  can  not  deal  with  civil  cases 
in  which  the  amount  claimed  is  over  five  hundred  rubles. 


PEESIAN  PASSENGERS. 


99 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Delta  of  the  Volga. — Persian  Passengers. — The  Constantine. — Pe- 
trovsk. — Derbent. — “Le  Pen  ifiternel.” — Persian  Merchandise. — Persian 
Clothing. — A  Colored  Deck-load. — Russian  Trio  of  Spirits. — “Un  Knut 
Russe.” — Baku. — “Dominique.”- — Dust  of  Baku. — The  Khan  of  Baku. — 
The  Maiden’s  Tower. — Russian  Naval  Station. — Petrolia  in  Asia. — Baku 
Oil-carts.  — The  Petroleum  Wells.  — Kalafj  Company.  —Pire-worship. — 
Parsees  and  Persians.  — ^The  Indian  Priest.  — The  Surakhani  Temple. — 
Manufacture  of  Petroleum. 

We  quitted  the  line  of  our  travels  at  Astrakhan  for  this 
digression  into  the  general  affairs  of  Russia.  The  delta  of 
one  great  river  is  very  much  like  that  of  another,  and  there 
are  no  peculiar  features  about  the  delta  of  the  Volga.  For 
fourteen  hours,  the  long  barge  in  which  we  sat,  in  company 
with  nearly  a  hundred  passengers  (mostly  Persians,  many 
from  the  provinces  of  Old  Persia,  which  have  long  been  Rus¬ 
sian,  and  a  few  from  the  dominions  of  the  Shah),  was  tugged 
by  a  small  steamboat  from  Astrakhan  to  the  steamship  Con¬ 
stantine,  which  was  moored  in  the  shallow  waters  of  the  Cas¬ 
pian.  We  were  along-side  about  two  in  the  morning  of  the 
last  day  of  September.  There  was  a  dreadful  pell-mell:  the 
Persian  passengers  being  anxious  to  secure  the  most  sheltered 
places  on  the  deck  for  their  bales  of  pillows  and  carpets,  their 
caged  canaries  and  pipe-cases.  Bags  and  bundles  were  has¬ 
tily  lifted  from  the  barge,  and  descended  like  a  shower  upon 
the  decks  of  the  Constantine  j  and  in  the  cabins  of  the  first- 
class  the  pressure  of  Armenians  of  doubtful  cleanliness  was 
so  great,  that  we  had  difficulty  in  obtaining  attention.  When 
at  last  our  cabin  was  lighted,  there  was,  of  course,  no  bed¬ 
ding,  and,  to  our  horror,  the  walls  and  roof  were  covered  with 


100 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


crawling  creatures  of  small  and  suspicious  form.  They  van¬ 
ished  at  the  candle-light;  and  observing  the  preference  of 
these  insects  for  darkness,  the  sleep  we  had  upon  the  Con¬ 
stantine  was  consequently  accomplished  by  illumination  of 
our  cabin. 

The  Constantine  is  not  a  Russian-built  ship ;  she,  like  all 
the  vessels  of  the  same  line,  came  from  Great  Britain  in  pieces, 
and  was  put  together  upon  the  shores  of  the  Caspian.  After 
steaming  about  fifty  miles  from  her  moorings  near  the  en¬ 
trance  to  the  Volga,  the  Constantine  lay  to  in  twenty-four 
feet  of  water,  on  account  of  a  strong  east  wind,  which  in  the 
deeper  sea  would  have  caused  the  ship  to  roll  so  as  to  jeop¬ 
ardize  the  piles  of  Persian  baggage  upon  the  main-deck.  The 
carpets  and  rich  silks  would  certainly  have  been  soaked  with 
the  very  salt  water  of  the  Caspian.  In  two  days  we  reached 
the  harbor  of  Petrovsk,  a  straggling  town  upon  the  edge  of 
a  mountainous  country,  from  which  there  is  a  good  road  to 
Tiflis ;  and  at  the  next  station  we  could  see  the  high  walls  of 
Derbent,  as  we  anchored  beneath  them  in  moonlight.  This 
is  a  fortress  which  Peter  the  Great  wrested  from  Persia  in 
1722. 

When  travelers  are  told  in  Russian,  French,  and  German 
that  on  their  way  down  the  Caspian  Sea  it  is  absolutely  nec¬ 
essary,  for  their  information  and  advantage,  that  they  should 
stay  at  Baku  and  see  the  “  everlasting  fire,”  they  are  natural¬ 
ly  inclined  to  yield  to  this  concurrence  of  advice.  So  it  hap¬ 
pened  that  when  the  Constantine  rounded  the  promontory 
on  which  Baku  stands,  and,  facing  suddenly  northward,  ap¬ 
proached  the  long  range  of  bare,  brown  hills  which  shelter  this 
chief  town  and  port  of  the  Caspian  from  the  coldest  winds, 
we  were  prepared  to  make  Baku  our  home  for  a  week  at  least. 

I  am  sorry  I  am  not  a  painter,  and  can  not  render  in  colors 
the  aspect  of  the  vessel  we  were  about  to  leave.  What  an 
Oriental  picture  the  after-deck  would  have  made  !  There  was 


A  COLOEED  DECK-LOAD. 


101 


not  a  foot  of  space  which  was  not  covered  with  Persian  car¬ 
pets.  The  deck  had  been  quartered  out  among*  themselves, 
with  fair  regard  to  the  balance  of  power,  by  the  Persian 
traders  returning  from  Nijoi;  and  in  groups  of  three  or  four 
they  lay  intrenched  beneath  their  gorgeously  colored  saddle¬ 
bags  and  bundles,  stuffed  with  rich  shawls,  with  finely  worked 
saddle-cloths,  and  with  silks  of  most  beautiful  colors.  The 
barricades  between  each  group  were  sometimes  four  or  five 
feet  in  height,  and  there  were  many  curious  boxes  and  cages 
containing  canaries,  whose  yellow  plumage  and  sweet  song  are 
much  esteemed  both  at  Baku  and  in  Teheran.  There  was  not 
a  man  among  them  who  did  not  wear  a  fine  turquois  set  in 
a  leaden  ring,  though  all  were  third-class  passengers ;  not  one 
without  the  tall  hat  of  black  fur  or  felt,  or  without  robes  of 
those  soft  colors  which  the  T'Testern  world  of  fashion  has 
but  lately  learned  to  love.  They  were  the  same  Persians — at 
least  in  manners  and  appearance — as  those  whose  acquaint¬ 
ance  we  all  made  years  and  years  ago  in  “  The  Arabian  Nights’ 
Entertainments.”  A  patriarch,  with  nails  and  beard  dyed  red 
with  khenna,  stood  blowing  out  his  water-pipe — the  Persians 
call  it  “kalian” — in  preparation  for  the  shore.  Three  young 
men  sat  near  us  in  outer  robes  of  black,  which,  like  the  cover¬ 
ing  of  some  tropical  insect,  heightened  the  effect  of  the  bright 
coloring  of  their  bodies,  which  were  covered  with  tunics  of 
red,  green,  and  purple,  decorated  with  silver  and  gold.  They 
were  on  a  coverlet  of  red  silk,  quilted  upon  a  thick  lining  of 
cotton  wool,  and  behind  each  man  lay  a  richly  colored  pillo’w. 
The  three  were  pecking,  like  fowls  in  a  yard,  but  with  their 
fingers,  at  the  half  of  a  w^ater-melon,  the  inside  of  which  had 
been  slashed  into  pieces  with  a  knife.  In  another  “  encamp¬ 
ment,”  one  who  might,  as  he  wore  the  green  turban,  be  a  de¬ 
scendant  of  the  Prophet  of  Islam,  was  reading  to  the  others 
from  the  Persian  version  of  “Joseph  and  Potiphar’s  wife.” 
In  the  Persian,  the  encounter  of  virtuous  Joseph  with  the  am- 


102 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


oroiis  Zulaikha  is  worked  up  into  a  tale  of  infidelity,  passion, 
and  revenge,  and,  for  obvious  reasons,  is  very  much  in  vogue 
in  Persia — as  popular  as  a  book  can  be  in  a  country  where 
publication  in  finely  written  manuscript  is  still  common,  and 
where  there  is  virtually  but  one  book — the  Koran. 

The  passage  from  Astrakhan  has  been  a  very  rough  one ; 
and  we  may  add,  that  all  Byron  has  said  of  the  fate  of  the 
traveler  in  the  “Euxine”  might  be  told  with  equal  truth  of 
the  nauseous  swell  of  the  Caspian.  We  A’^entured,  as  mem¬ 
bers  of  Mr.  Plimsoll’s  committees,  to  ask  the  captain  why  he 
allowed  his  main-deck  to  be  so  loaded  and  encumbered  that 
the  sailors  could  only  pass  to  the  wheel  by  walking  upon  the 
bulwarks  of  the  vessel.  ‘^Ah,”  he  replied,  “these  Persian 
people  Avon’t  give  up  their  baggage.  They  would  cry  if  I 
sent  it  doAvn  into  the  hold.  They  think  every  body  is  going 
to  rob  them,  and  that  nothing  out  of  sight  is  safe.  As  a  fact, 
I  believe  they  do  rob  each  other  Avhenever  they  get  an  op¬ 
portunity,  They  would  rather  risk  having  their  carpets  and 
things  Avashed  Avith  sea-Avater  on  deck  than  put  them  safe  in 
the  hold.”  Certainly  our  fellow-passengers  Avere  foolish  as  to 
their  baggage ;  but  as  to  themselves,  almost  anv  corner  of  the 
open  deck  Avas  better  than  to  endure  the  vile  atmosphere  of 
the  cabins,  Avhere  the  smells  of  a  Russian  dram-shop  and  of  an 
unventilated  Spanish  prison  seemed  to  be  mingled  in  almost 
suffocating  odor.  Early  in  the  voyage  Ave  had  paid  the  pen¬ 
alty  of  opening  our  cabin  Avindow,  in  having  our  beddino- 
soaked  by  a  huge  wave ;  and,  to  the  indignation  of  the  stew¬ 
ard,  the  Avaters  from  our  window  had  passed  beneath  our  door 
into  public  view.  There  Avas  the  alternative  of  the  deck-sa¬ 
loon,  Avhere  no  one  Avould  suffer  a  AvindoAV  to  be  open ;  Avhere 
every  body  smoked  tobacco,  and  spit  in  every  direction  ex¬ 
cept  that  of  the  neglected  spittoon ;  Avhere  there  Avas  sus¬ 
pended  a  tinseled  image  of  St.  Constantine,  patron  saint  of  our 
vessel,  whose  fixed  eyes  stared  upon  the  invariable  Russian 


BAKU. 


103 


trio  of  bottles,  containing  spirits,  brown,  green,  and  white,  all 
ardent  and  intoxicating.  Both  captain  and  passengers  seemed 
much  more  devoted  to  the  spirits  than  to  the  saint.  The  pres¬ 
ence  of  English  names  upon  every  part  of  the  ship  betrayed 
the  backwardness  of  mechanical  skill  in  Kussia — a  country 
which  seems  to  be  full  of  kindly,  good-natured  people,  steeped, 
for  the  most  part,  above  the  ears  in  superstition,  but  loyal  to 
their  Church  and  Tsar  to  a  degree  almost  fanatical,  and  quite 
beyond  comparison  with  the  sentiments  of  the  less  simple- 
minded  people  of  Western  Europe. 

‘Woila  un  knut  Russe,  monsieur,”  laughed  a  Russian  offi¬ 
cer  in  my  ear.  We  were  approaching  the  wooden  quay,  where 
the  police  of  Baku  were  thrusting  the  crowd  of  too  urgent 
porters  back  from  the  gangway,  and  threatening  them  with 
short  but  terrible  whips,  a  representation  in  miniature  of  the 
knout,”  of  which  we  read  in  childhood  with  so  much  horror 
at  the  barbarity  of  Russian  punishments.  The  porters,  some 
with  huge  pads  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  others  carrying  cords 
in  their  hands,  with  which  to  balance  or  secure  their  loads, 
were  a  body  of  strong  men,  twenty  or  thirty,  at  least,  whose 
bare  limbs  of  every  shade,  from  the  ebony  of  Africa  to  the 
copper  of  Southern  Persia,  and  the  redder  tinge  of  native 
Baku,  protruded  from  rags  which  seemed  to  have  neither 
shape  nor  fastening.  The  Baku  policemen  are  a  most  pecul¬ 
iar  institution.  They  wear  a  Circassian  costume,  with  huge 
muff-shaped  hats  of  white  or  black  sheep-skin ;  and,  besides 
their  lash,  carry  a  long  sword  and  a  dagger.  One  must,  how¬ 
ever  reluctantly,  admit  that  something  more  than  the  “  Move 
on”  or  “ Stand  back,  can’t  you?”  of  our  own  Policeman  X  is 
needed  to  maintain  order  among  Baku  boatmen  and  porters. 
The  former  have  a  very  savage  appearance,  which  indeed  is 
common  to  the  boatmen  of  the  Caspian.  Waving  aloft  their 
spade- shaped  oars,  propellers  as  primitive  as  those  of  any 
Sandwich  Islanders,  they  invoke  with  smiles  and  shouts,  ris- 


104 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ing  to  screams  and  shrieks,  if  their  overtures  do  not  receive 
attention,  the  descent  of  passengers  into  their  boats ;  and  the 
porters,  Avho  unite  the  powers  of  the  camel  to  the  pertinacious 
ajDpetite  —  for  baggage  —  of  hungry  jackals,  are  not  easy  to 
manage.  We  were  about  to  engage  three,  when  one  seized 
upon  our  trunks,  and,  piling  two  together  upon  a  high  seat, 
passed  a  cord  round  the  load,  and  with  a  face  beaming  with 
satisfaction  at  the  prospect  of  a  good  job,  bent  almost  double, 
and  took  the  pile,  like  the  howdah  of  an  eleiDhant,  upon  his 
back.  Along  the  wooden  jetty  he  led  us  to  the  street,  and 
delivered  his  burden  to  the  turbaned  driver  of  one  of  several 
two-horsed  carriages,  better  and  handsomer  than  any  which 
stand  for  hire  in  London,  or  in  Paris,  or  St.  Petersburg. 
These  carriages  were  all  open  barouches,  clean  and  bright,  as 
things  may  be  where  there  is  no  rain  or  mud  for  many  months. 
In  Baku,  when,  as  often  haj)pens,  these  carriages  are  drawn 
by  white  or  gray  horses,  the  manes  and  tails  are  dyed  pink, 
after  the  Persian  manner. 

When  a  stranger — a  European — arrives  in  Baku,  nobody 
seems  to  have  any  doubt  as  to  his  destination.  In  the  first 
place,  he,  with  all  his  luggage,  must  desire  to  go  to  “Domi¬ 
nique.”  If  a  European  landed  at  Baku  and  said  nothing, 
he  would  be  taken  to  Dominique.  N^o  one  ever  alludes  to 
“  the  Hotel  dTtalie,”  though  that  is  synonymous  with  Domi¬ 
nique,  who  is,  in  fact,  the  landlord  of  that  hotel.  Along 
the  quays,  past  the  baths  floating  in  the  clear,  bitter-salt  sea, 
through  the  dusty  place,  we  drove  to  Dominique,  where, 
after  surmounting  the  ground-floor,  occupied  with  casks  and 
stoies,  by  a  lengthy  flight  of  wooden  stairs,  w'^e  were  shown 
into  rooms  with  floors  thickly  sanded  by  the  sea-breeze,  each 
furnished  with  a  bare  bedstead  and  a  chair.  At  our  re¬ 
quest,  Dominique  slouched  in,  a  man  with  a  cigar  in  his 
mouth  and  ear-rings  in  his  ears,  spitting  now  and  then  as  he 
appioached  a  man  with  the  appearance  of  aHevantine  sailor 


“DOMINIQUE.”  105 

who  had  once  been  an  Italian  of  Lesjhorn  or  Genoa.  Domi- 
nique  has  none  of  the  deferential  manner  of  the  average  ho¬ 
tel-keeper.  No  fear  of  rivals  haunts  his  mind.  He  is  Domi¬ 
nique;  and  if  any  one  comes  to  Baku  with  sufficient  money 
in  his  pocket,  a  room  in  Dominique’s  house  is  his  by  a  sort 
of  right  which  Dominique  does  not  question,  but  to  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  which  he  seems  profoundly  indifferent.  The  rooms 
are  sandy,  but  so  is  all  Baku,  except  where  the  streets  are 
spread  with  a  mixture  of  water  and  the  dregs  of  petroleum ; 
and  if  bedding  is  required,  Dominique  keeps  a  little  in  store 
for  eccentrics  from  Western  Europe,  and  will  produce  a 
scanty  supply  of  linen  for  a  consideration  in  the  bill. 

Dominique  is  a  quaint,  pleasant  fellow,  and,  from  the  spa¬ 
cious  balcony,  points  out,  between  puffs  of  his  cigar,  the  chief 
objects  of  interest  in  Baku.  Peter  the  Great,  he  says,  built 
that  strong  wall  which  surrounds  the  old  town  when  he  had 
captured  Baku  from  the  Persians.  But  Russia,  he  adds,  lost 
it  again ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  beginning  of  the  present  cent¬ 
ury  that  Baku  became  a  part  of  the  Russian  Empire.  He 
directs  our  eyes  to  the  sombre,  solid  building,  placed  in  a  sta¬ 
tion  of  command  where  the  town  rises  highest — the  old  pal¬ 
ace  of  the  Khans  of  Baku — now  used  as  a  military  store-house ; 
a  building,  in  its  fluted  arches  and  in  other  features  thorough¬ 
ly  Persian  or  Moorish,  but,  though  very  similar  in  style,  infi¬ 
nitely  inferior  in  design  and  workmanship  to  the  palaces  of 
the  Deys  of  Tunis  and  Algiers.  A  merchant  (an  Armenian) 
joins  us  —  there  is  much  freedom  and  fellowship  at  Domi¬ 
nique’s — and  kindly  volunteers  a  recital  of  the  legend  concern¬ 
ing  “  The  Maiden’s  Tower,”  the  most  prominent  building  in 
Baku,  a  huge  cylinder  of  masonry  rising  in  the  lower  part  of 
the  town,  which  is  somehow  connected  at  present  with  the  wa¬ 
ter  supply  of  the  place.  The  khan,  it  appears,  had  a  daugh¬ 
ter — lovely,  of  course,  like  all  the  ladies  of  all  the  legends — 
whose  will  he  desired  to  coerce — matrimonially,  we  need  not 

5* 


106 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


say.  The  daughter,  whose  inclinations  were  opposed  to  her 
father’s  commands,  ascended  the  tower,  which  the  khan  was 
then  building,  and  soon  afterward  her  lifeless  body  was  car¬ 
ried  from  its  foot. 

Dominique  ejaculates  the  Italian  equivalent  for  rubbish !” 
and  points,  as  more  worthy  of  attention,  to  the  farther  side 
of  the  bay,  to  the  white  buildings  of  the  Russian  naval  sta¬ 
tion,  in  front  of  which  there  are  two  steam  corvettes  lying  at 
anchor.  One  looks  with  interest  on  these  ships  of  war,  im¬ 
prisoned  on  this  isolated,  land-locked  sea,  destined  never  to 
meet  with  their  equals  or  superiors  under  other  flags,  for 
Persia  has  no  ships  of  war — can  not,  must  not,  by  treaty  with 
Russia,  have  them  in  the  Caspian ;  and  where  is  the  possible 
enemy  who  will  bring  ships  of  war  in  pieces  from  the  Tigris 
or  the  Black  Sea  to  be  put  together  in  a  hostile  country? 
They  have,  however,  a  useful  function  in  preventing  piracy 
in  the  Caspian,  and  at  no  very  distant  day  these  vessels  may 
be  called  upon  to  cover  and  protect  with  the  fire  of  their 
guns  the  landing  of  Russian  troops  upon  the  Persian  shore. 
The  harbor  of  Baku  is  not  only  the  best  in  the  Caspian,  but 
it  is  the  only  capacious,  sheltered  port  in  that  sea. 

At  Baku  rain  rarely  falls;  the  sky  is  generally  cloudless; 
but  if  a  man  has  the  fixed  popular  belief  that  his  life  will  en¬ 
dure  until  he  has  eaten  the  proverbial  “  peck  of  dirt,”  and  no 
longer,  then  he  will  only  expedite. his  end  by  coming  to  Baku. 
It  is  more  dusty  than  San  Francisco  or  Odessa,  the  dustiest 
towns  of  Europe  and  America,  and  one  must  be  careful,  or 
he  may  swallow  the  peck  ”  in  a  month. 

Baku  is  part  of  Old  Persia.  Nine-tenths  of  the  population 
are  descendants  of  subjects  of  Shah  Abbas.  The  manners 
and  customs  of  the  bazaars  are  thoroughly  Persian.  The  old 
men,  in  striking  contrast  to  their  high  hats  of  black  fur,  dye 
their  beards  bright- red  with  khenna.  Very  few  women  of 
the  superior  class  are  to  be  seen.  We  arrived  in  company 


PETKOLIA  IN  ASIA. 


107 


with  many  men  who  had  been  absent  from  their  homes  in 
Baku  for  months,  trading  at  Nijni-N’ovgorod,  but  no  wives 
met  this  “  husbands’  boat  ”  from  Europe.  The  Persian  wom¬ 
en  in  Russian  Baku  rarely  leave  their  homes.  There  were 
three  or  four  shuffling  along  the  quay  with  slippered  feet, 
closely  covered  from  the  sight  of  man,  and  groups  of  washer¬ 
women  labored  in  the  ripples  of  the  shore,  who  were  careless 
as  to  any  other  exposure,  so  that  they  could  clap  something 
over  their  faces  at  sight  of  a  passing  stranger. 

There  is  not  a  tree  or  shrub  to  be  seen  upon  the  arid  hills 
and  stony  steppe,  and  the  odor  of  naphtha  is  never  out  of  the 
nostrils.  Baku  has  for  ages  past  been  celebrated  in  the  East¬ 
ern  World  for  that  which  every  one  in  the  town  who  can 
speak  three  words  of  French  calls  Le  Feu  Fternel ;  and  in 
these  days  —  when  her  native  population  is  sprinkled  with 
sharp  Armenians  who  would  rake  profits  out  of  this  or  any 
other  fire,  and  some  streets  are  bordered  with  houses  of 
European  style  —  Baku  presents  the  aspect  of  an  Oriental 
town,  conscious  of  coming  greatness  and  higher  civilization 
under  a  different  system,  when  her  subterranean  riches  shall 
have  become  better  known,  and  be  more  largely  brought 
forth.  Baku  has  struck  oil and  before  many  years  are 
past,  the  world  will  hear  much  more  of  this  obscure  town — 
this  Petrolia  in  Asia.  The  engines  of  the  Constantine — the 
ship  in  which  his  imperial  majesty  the  Shah  traversed  the 
Caspian  —  were  driven  with  petroleum.  Coal,  the  cajitain 
told  us,  costs  eighteen  and  a  half  rubles  per  hour,  while  pe¬ 
troleum  costs  only  one  and  a  half  rubles — a  reduction  from 
fifty  shillings  to  four  shillings.  In  three  years  Baku  will  be 
united  by  railway  with  Tiflis  and  the  Black  Sea,  and  then 
probably  all  the  Russian  steamships  on  the  Euxine  will  be 
supplied  with  the  same  disagreeable  but  inexpensive  fuel. 
The  machinery  for  combustion  reminded  us  of  one  of  those 
pretty  contrivances  for  blowing  the  spray  of  liquid  scent 


108 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


about  a  drawing-room.  As  the  coarse  residue  of  the  petro¬ 
leum — for  it  is  the  dregs  or  sediment  only  which  is  burned — 
pours  in  a  thin,  muddy  stream  from  a  tap  near  the  door  of 
each  furnace,  a  jet  of  steam,  generated  by  a  coal  fire,  blows 
it  into  s]Dray,  and  thus  it  is  consumed,  wdth  an  even  heat, 
throughout  the  furnaces  of  the  engines. 

All  day  long  petroleum  rolls  into  Baku  in  carts  of  the  most 
curious  pattern  imaginable.  A  Neapolitan  single-horse,  tw'O- 
wheeled  carriage  for  fifteen  people  is  unique,  but  it  is  com¬ 
monplace  in  comparison  with  an  oil-cart  of  Baku.  Few  men 
would  have  the  courage  to  import  a  Baku  oil-cart,  and  drive 
it,  even  for  a  very  high  wager,  through  Regent  Street  or  Pall 
Mall.  Where  is  the  man  who  would  dare  to  pose  himself 
there,  perched  and  caged  in  a  little  railed  cart,  big  enough  to 
hold  one  barrel  of  petroleum,  and  lifted  so  high  on  wheels 
seven  feet  in  diameter,  that  another  huge  tub  can  be  slung  be¬ 
neath  the  axle,  the  whole  thing  being  painted  with  all  the  col¬ 
ors  of  the  rainbow,  and  creaking  loudly  as  it  is  drawn  by  a 
diminutive  horse,  the  back  of  which  is  hardly  up  to  a  level 
with  the  axle  ?  Yet  the  exploiteurs  say  that  already  they  pay 
collectively  not  much  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
a  year  for  the  cartage  of  oil  in  carriages  of  this  sort.  They 
were  eager  to  show  us  the  oil-wells,  and  hopeful,  as  they  are 
much  in  want  of  capital,  that  we  should  send  them  some  meek 
and  moneyed  Englishmen.  We  set  out  to  visit  the  “ever¬ 
lasting  fire”  and  these  mines  of  liquid  wealth,  in  a  dust-storm, 
with  horses  so  active  that  we  might  suj)pose  they  too  were 
fed  with  naphtha. 

In  the  outskirts  of  Baku,  where  we  saw  a  scorpion  for  the 
first  time,  the  country  is  all  dust  and  desolation — a  desert  in 
which  every  one  with  an  original  turn  of  mind  may  make  his 
own  road.  For  two  or  three  miles  along  the  shore  of  the 
bay,  the  many  buildings  in  which  the  petroleum  is  refined  by 
itself  as  fuel  pour  forth  dense  smoke,  and  at  eight  miles  from 


KALAFY  COMPAI^Y. 


109 


the  town  are  the  springs.  The  average  depth  at  which  the 
oil  is  touched  seems  to  be  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet. 
The  wells  are,  for  the  most  part,  nine  inches  to  a  foot  in  di¬ 
ameter.  From  the  first  well  we  visited,  a  small  steam-engine, 
with  most  jDi’imitive  gear,  was  lifting  about  four  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  pounds’  weight  of  petroleum  in  a  day.  The 
oil  is  of  greenish  color,  and,  as  it  is  drawn  from  the  earth,  is 
emptied  into  a  square  pit  dug  in  the  surface  soil,  from  whence 
men  take  it  in  buckets  and  pour  it  into  skins  or  barrels,  the 
charge  at  the  wells  being  at  the  rate  of  one  and  a  half  pence 
per  fifty  pounds’  weight  of  oil.  At  the  works  of  the  Kalafy 
Company,  an  Armenian  concern,  when  their  well  was  first 
opened,  the  petroleum  burst  up  in  a  fountain  nine  feet  in  di¬ 
ameter,  a  part  of  which  rose  forty  feet  in  the  air.  At  all  the 
wells  the  oil  is  now  raised  in  circular  tubes  about  nine  feet 
long  and  as  many  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  valve  at  the  lower 
end  which  opens  on  touching  the  ground,  and  closes  when 
the  tube  is  lifted.  This  cylinder  is  lowered  empty,  and  raised 
again  when  filled  with  oil,  in  less  than  two  minutes.  A  man 
pulls  the  full  tube  toward  a  tub,  into  which  its  contOnts  are 
poured,  and  through  a  hole  in  the  tub  the  oil  runs  into  the 
pit  from  which  the  skins  and  barrels  are  filled.  We  were 
assured  that  the  Baku  petroleum  is  of  better  quality  than  the 
oil  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that  it  is  less  dangerous,  because 
its  flashing  point  of  temperature  is  from  thirty  to  forty  de- 
gi’ees  higher  than  that  of  the  American  product. 

It  is  certainly  very  wonderful,  upon  a  sandy  plain,  with  not 
a  tree  nor  a  blade  of  grass  in  sight,  to  look  upon  a  reservoir 
of  liquid  fuel  thus  drawn  from  this  stony  soil;  yet  to  our 
thinking  there  was  a  spectacle  much  more  curious,  about 
twelve  vefsts  farther  from  Baku,  when  we  came  to  one  of  the 
oldest  altars  in  the  world,  erect  and  flaming  with  its  natural 
burnt-offering  to  this  day.  Surakhani  is  an  ancient  seat  of 
probably  one  of  the  most  ancient  forms  of  worship.  For  un- 


110 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


numbered  ages,  the  gas  which  is  generated  by  this  subter¬ 
ranean  store  of  oil,  identical  with  that  which  caused  the  Re¬ 
gent’s  Park  explosion,  has  escaped  through  long-established 
and  inaccessible  fissures  in  the  limestone  eras:  of  which  the 
hills  in  the  neighborhood  are  composed,  and  the  fire  of  this 
gas  has  lighted  the  prayers  of  generations  of  priests,  as  it 
blazed  and  flared  away  to  the  heavens. 

Fire-worship  in  Persia,  of  which  until  the  eighteenth  centu¬ 
ry  Baku  formed  a  part,  is  older  than  history.  When  we  have 
passed  about  a  thousand  miles  farther  south,  between  Ispahan 
and  Shiraz,  we  shall  come,  at  the  ruins  of  Istakr  and  Persep- 
olis,  upon  authentic  traces  of  the  reigns  of  Cyrus,  of  Darius, 
of  Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes.  But  the  fire-worshiping  period  is 
older  than  Cyrus.  We  do  not  know  when  the  remnant  of  the 
fire-worshipers  was  driven  southward,  nor  precisely  how  far 
we  are  justified  in  assuming  the  Parsees  of  India  to  be  their 
descendants.  But  we  find  the  Parsees  using  as  sacred  books 
the  Zendavesta  ”  of  the  Zoroastrians ;  and  we  know  that  at 
an  obscure  town  between  Kurrachee  and  Bombay  there  is  a 
Parsee  temple,  the  fire  in  which  is  regarded  with  peculiar  rev¬ 
erence  as  the  oldest  ”  fire  in  the  world,  the  tradition  among 
the  Parsees  being  that  this  fire  was  originally  brought  in 
charred  wood  from  a  temple  in  Persia,  and  that  it  has  never 
since  been  suffered  to  expire.  It  may  be  that  the  fire  in  this 
temple  has  been  unextinguished  for  a  period  extending  from 
before  the  time  of  Cyrus.  “It  is,”  says  Professor  Wester- 
gaard,  “to  this  ante-Achgemenian  period  that  I  refer  Zoroas¬ 
ter;  and  I  find  it  therefore  quite  natural  that  he  could  have 
belonged  to  a  remote  and  uncertain  antiquity  so  early  as  in 
the  fourth*  century  before  Christ,  when  his  name  is  first  men¬ 
tioned  by  Greek  authors.  The  main  accounts  of  his*  lore  date. 


*  This  may  be  a  misprint  in  the  preface  to  Westergaard’s  translation  of 
the  “Zendavesta.” 


THE  INDIAN  PEIEST. 


Ill 


I  think,  from  the  period  which  they  intimate ;  and  their  lan¬ 
guage,  two  cognate  dialects  of  very  distinctive  character, 
liossesses  a  greater  store  of  grammatical  forms,  and  has  an 
appearance  less  worn,  and  consequently  older,  than  the  old 
Persian,  in  the  descriptions  of  Darius,  the  nearest  cognate 
branch.” 

For  long,  long  ages,  the  worship  of  these  flaming  issues  of 
petroleum  gas  at  Surakhani  has  been  maintained  by  delega¬ 
tions  of  priests  from  India,  who  have  died  and  been  buried 
upon  the  spot,  to  be  succeeded  by  other  devotees  from  the 
same  country.  It  would,  of  course,  be  possible  to  extinguish 
the  blaze,  if  one  were  to  choke  the  fissures ;  and  the  people 
about  the  place  say  that  sometimes,  when  the  wind  rises  to 
a  hurricane,  the  fire  is  actually  put  out.  The  gas,  however, 
can  then  at  once  be  relighted  with  a  match.  We  saw  this 
done,  not,  as  of  yore,  with  mysterious  incantations,  and  the 
terrified  awe  of  superstitious  worshipers,  but — to  what  base 
uses  may  gods  come ! — in  order  to  burn  lime  for  Baku,  and 
to  purify  the  oil  raised  from  the  natural  reservoir  in  which 
the  gas  is  generated.  We  thought  that  never,  perhaps,  had 
we  seen  a  man  more  to  be  pitied  than  the  “poor  Indian,” 
who  is  the  successor  of  a  long  line  of  religiously  appointed 
guardians  of  this  once  wholly  sacred  spot.  There  the  light 
of  this  lamp  of  Nature’s  making  flared  on  its  formerly  hal¬ 
lowed  altar-place,  maid  of  all  work  to  half  a  dozen  degenerate 
Persians,  now  subjects  of  the  Christian  Tsar,  who  thought  of 
nothing  but  making  lime,  and  of  warming  their  messes  of 
sour  milk  and  unleavened  bread.  In  another  place  the  gas 
was  conducted  from  the  surface  of  the  ground  into  a  furnace, 
where  it  flamed  beneath  vats  of  petroleum,  in  the  process  of 
refining  the  native  oil  by  distillation.  Surely  there  never  was 
such  a  pitiful  reductio  ad  ahsurdum !  Before  us  stood  the 
priest  of  a  very  venerable  religion,  which  has  always  seemed 
to  me  to  be  one  of  the  most  noble  and  natural  for  a  primitive 


112 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


people.  There  he  stood,  ready  for  half  a  ruble  to  perform 
the  rites  of  his  worn-out  worship,  and  there  also  was  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  his  life-long  devotion  set  to  work  as  economic  firing. 
Such  a  rude  encounter  of  the  old  and  the  new,  of  ideality  and 
utility,  of  the  practical  and  the  visionary,  was  surely  never 
seen  elsewhere. 

I  suspect  that,  as  a  Yankee  would  say,  the  worship  of  Le 
Feu  Eternel  at  Baku  is  almost  played  out.  Of  course,  the 
enlightened  Parsee  worships  God  in  the  fire,  and  not  the  fire 
as  God ;  his  theory  being,  I  believe,  that  the  God  of  Nature 
can  not  be  truly  adored  unless  the  worshiper  has  his  atten¬ 
tion  fixed  upon  one  of  the  elements — fire,  air,  earth,  or  water. 
Failing  fire,  a  Parsee  may  pray  in  open  air,  or  beside  a  tree 
or  stream.  The  “  poor  Indian  ”  of  Surakhani  complains  bit¬ 
terly  that  he  is  robbed  of  every  thing  by  the  Persian  work¬ 
men,  of  whom  probably  not  one  now  sees  any  mystery  at  all  ' 
in  these  flames  issuing  from  the  earth.  They  are  every  day 
engaged  with  an  inflammable  material,  and  not  a  few  have 
made  perilous  acquaintance  with  the  explosive  properties  of 
the  gas  which  is  emitted  from  petroleum ;  yet  but  few  acci¬ 
dents  seem  to  occur. 


A  TARANTAS. 


113 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Bathing  in  the  Caspian. — The  Way  to  Europe. — A  Tarantas. — The  Baku 
Club.  —  Mihailovski  Gardens.  — Leaving  Baku.  — Lenkoran. — Astara. — 
Petroleum  on  Deck. — Enzelli. — Persian  Boatmen. — Mr.  Consul  Church¬ 
ill,  C.B. — Enzelli  Custom-house. — Sadr  Azem’s  Konak. — The  Shah’s 
Yacht. — Lake  of  Enzelli. — Peri-bazaar. — Province  of  Ghilan. — Eesht. — 
Bazaar  and  ‘‘Green.” — Women  of  Persia. — Their  Street  Costume. — 
Shopping  in  Bazaar. — Biding  in  Persia. — Chapar  and  Caravan. — Kerja- 
vas. — A  Takht-i-rawan. — Leaving  Besht. — Charvodars  and  Gholams. — 
Lucky  and  Unlucky  Days. — Whips  of  Iron. — “Ul-lah.” — The  Bell  Mule. 
— Housseiii  Mounted. — The  First  Station. — Our  Camp  Kitchen. — A  Mud 
Hovel. 

We  had  bathed  every  day  in  the  buoyant  waters  of  the 
Caspian ;  we  had  sailed  two  miles  across  the  natural  harbor 
to  visit  the  Russian  naval  and  military  station,  which  will 
become  still  more  important  as  a  base  for  operations  in  Cen¬ 
tral  Asia  when  the  railway  from  the  Caucasus  is  complete. 
We  had  become  known  to  many  of  the  Armenian  exporters 
of  petroleum,  who  continually  implored  us  to  send  them  a  few 
British  capitalists  (as  if  such  people  were  to  be  picked  up  in 
London  for  the  trouble  of  stooping),  so  that  their  works  may 
be  extended,  and  the  oil  produced  more  cheaply.  We  had 
made  acquaintance  with  a  tarantas,”  and  with  the  members 
of  the  Baku  Club,  before  we  prepared  to  quit  that  rising 
town. 

If  we  had  decided  to  return  to  Europe  by  Tiflis,  we  must 
have  taken  a  tarantas,  or,  rather,  we  must  have  purchased  a 
tarantas ;  for  no  one  lends  or  lets  a  suitable  carriage  for  that 
five  days’  journey,  over  a  road  which  is  impassable  for  car¬ 
riages  of  lighter  construction  than  a  tarantas.  Where  the 


114 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CAEAVAIf. 


return  journey  would  cost  more  than  the  value  of  any  vehicle 
in  the  country,  hiring  is  of  course  out  of  the  question.  A  ta- 
rantas  is  simply  a  stronge.  carriage,  securely  fixed  upon  half 
a  dozen  horizontal  fir  poles,  the  pliancy  of  which  (and,  being 
small  trees,  they  are  not  very  elastic)  stands  for  springs.  The 
wheels  are  small,  and  very  strong.  To  the  carriage,  some¬ 
times  three  and  sometimes  seven  horses  are  attached,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  view  which  the  postmaster  at  each  station  takes  of 
the  pocket  of  the  traveler,  of  the  engagements  of  his  horses, 
and  the  condition  of  the  road.  The  body  of  the  tarantas  is 
quite  unfurnished.  Some  travelers  from  Baku  make  a  seat 
by  plaiting  rope  across  from  side  to  side  of  the  carriage ;  but 
it  is  more  usual  to  make  a  seat  of  some  box  or  bundle,  inas¬ 
much  as  the  traveler  is  expected  to  carry  his  luggage  inside. 
A  tarantas  costs  about  fourteen  pounds  sterling,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  journey  will  probably  be  found  unsalable.  In 
Dominique’s  yard,  at  Baku,  there  was  a  tarantas  in  which  a 
British  consul  in  Persia  had  traveled  with  his  wife  from 
Tiflis.  Dominique  had  been  told  to  sell  it  for  the  owner; 
but  there  it  stood,  rotting  away  with  years  of  waiting  for 
a  purchaser. 

As  seen  by  light  of  the  oil  of  petroleum,  the  Baku  Club 
is  a  pleasant  institution.  There  is  a  sea-side  garden  at  Baku 
in  which  a  few  shrubs  are  dragged  through  life  by  copious 
watering  applied  daily.  They  look  dusty  and  unnatural  by 
daylight,  and  so  do  the  gayly-painted  wooden  pavilions;  but 
at  night,  when  the  rippling  sea  can  be  heard  between  the 
pieces  of  music,  the  club  meets  in  the  highest  of  these  pa¬ 
vilions.  The  garden  is  then  full  of  people,  and  there  is  no 
stint  of  the  light  of  petroleum  oil.  None  may  mount  the 
steps  of  this  pavilion  who  are  not  of  the  club.  The  pavilion 
is  open  to  the  garden,  and  is  set  out  with  refreshment  and 
card  tables.  In  this  place  the  Russian  officers  of  the  station 
and  the  wealthier  of  the  towns-folk  of  Baku,  together  with 


LENKOEAN'. — ASTAKA. 


115 


their  wives  and  families,  appear  to  spend  the  happiest  hours 
of  their  existence. 

The  aggregated  babble  of  their  talk,  a  good  deal  of  it  real 
“coffee-house  babble,’’  and  the  strains  of  the  music  from  this 
Mihailovski  Garden,  fell  not  unpleasantly  on  our  ears,  as  we 
embarked  late  one  evening  for  the  realms  of  the  Shah.  There 
was  a  strong  wind  blowing;  and  the  captain,  who  could  speak 
German  after  the  manner  of  a  Finlander,  said  that  if  it  com 
tinned,  which  he  did  not  think  likely,  we  could  not  be  landed 
in  Persia,  which  has  no  port  or  harbor  on  the  Caspian.  Any 
body  may  take  a  ticket  entitling  the  bearer  to  travel  by  the 
boats  of  the  Caucasus  and  Mercury  Company  (which  is  heav¬ 
ily  subsidized  by  the  Tsar’s  Government)  from  Baku  to  the 
Persian  town  of  Enzelli,  the  usual  landing-place  for  Teheran ; 
but  if,  when  the  vessel  arrives  in  the  roadstead  of  Enzelli, 
the  wind  is  blowing  strongly  from  the  north-north-east,  there 
will  be  a  surf  rolling  in  which  not  all  the  power  of  Shah  or 
Tsar  can  enable  passengers  to  land.  Who  that  has  read  the 
“  Diary  ”  of  the  Persian  “  Shadow  of  God  ”  can  forget  the  pa¬ 
thetic  record  of  imperial  and  grand-vizierial  sufferings  when 
the  Constantine  rolled  so  fearfully  off  Enzelli  that  her  yards 
nearly  touched  the  waves,  and  the  Shah,  with  the  hand  of  ap¬ 
prehension  placed  on  the  stomach  of  discomposure,  feared  he 
would  never  again  touch  the  soil  of  his  own  Persia  ! 

The  scenery  in  the  south  of  the  Caspian  is  magnificent. 
At  Lenkoran — a  famous  place  for  tiger-hunting — the  sea  is 
bordered  with  high  mountains.  We  see  the  last  of  Russian 
territory  at  Astara,  where  a  narrow  river  of  that  name  limits 
for  the  present  the  conquests  of  Russia  from  Persia.  We 
had  four  immense  hogsheads  of  petroleum  on  board  for  As¬ 
tara,  but  our  steam- vessel  rolled  so  heavily  that  it  was  impos¬ 
sible  to  land  them.  They  must  be  carried  to  Astrabad  and 
back,  more  than  five  hundred  miles ;  and  i30ssibly  upon  the 
return  journey  there  would  be  the  same  difficulty,  and  the 


116 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


enormous  tubs  must  then  be  returned  to  Baku.  On  personal 
grounds,  we  were  sorry  not  to  be  rid  of  this  part  of  the  cargo. 
The  hogsheads  were  lashed  to  the  funnel  upon  the  main  deck, 
and  the  Persian  passengers  used  them  frequently  as  a  support 
for  their  kalians,  from  which  the  lighted  charcoal  rolled  some¬ 
times  on  to  the  deck.  It  seemed  to  me  that  we  lived  in 
momentary  danger  of  an  explosion,  which  would  have  de¬ 
stroyed  the  vessel,  with  all  its  passengers  and  cai’go. 

Possibly  it  was  for  a  fair  wind  that  the  Persians  were  pray¬ 
ing  at  sunset  upon  the  last  evening  of  our  voyage.  There 
was  hardly  a  man  of  the  score  or  so  upon  the  after-deck  Avho 
had  not,  either  in  a  bag  hung  round  his  neck  or  hidden  in 
the  top  of  his  tall,  brimless  hat,  a  circular  lump  of  sacred 
sun-baked  clay,  about  the  size  of  four  half-crowns,  taken  from 
somewhere  near  the  tomb  of  Houssein  at  Kerbela,  in  Turkish 
Arabia.  Wlien  the  supplicant  knelt  in  prayer,  this  was  laid 
before  him  upon  the  deck,  so  that  he  could  press  his  fore¬ 
head  upon  the  holy  clay ;  and  an  elderly  man  who  was  not 
possessed  of  such  precious  fruit  of  that  pilgrimage,  which 
ranks  next  in  importance  to  a  religious  journey  to  Mecca, 
borrowed  the  treasure  from  one  of  the  company,  and  per¬ 
formed  his  devotions,  wdth  his  face  toward  Mecca,  while  the 
previous  supplicant  was  engaged  in  preparing  the  sugary 
tea-water,  the  “  chie,”  which  rich  and  poor  in  Persia  seem  to 
prefer  to  any  other  drink. 

Is  it  owing  to  their  vegetable  diet  that  Eastern  people  ap¬ 
pear  so  rarely  to  suffer  from  sea-sickness  ?  Those  who  have 
endured  such  sufferings,  for  which  the  Caspian  oilers  much 
opportunity,  will  have  passed  Astara,  and  approached  the 
shore  at  Enzelli  with  gladness.  If  the  sea  is  moderate,  as 
it  most  fortunately  was  when  we  arrived,  they  will  not  be 
sorry,  even  though  there  comes  through  the  cabin  windows 
a  Babel  of  screams  and  shouts,  varied  with  the  cracking  of 
wood,  as  the  surf-boats  are  dashed  by  the  waves  against  each 


PERSIAN  BOATMEN. 


117 


other  and  upon  the  side  of  the  steamship.  While  the  bun¬ 
dles  of  reeds  tied  upon  the  bulwarks  of  the  frail  craft  are 
crunching  together,  with  what  skill  the  half- naked  rowers 
avoid  tumbling  into  the  sea,  or  suffering  in j  uiy  to  their  hands 
and  arms!  ‘‘Pedder  sec!”  (^^Son  of  a  dog!”)  shrieked  a 
melon-seller  with  nothing  upon  him  except  a  skull-cap  of  many 
colors,  a  beard  dyed  bright  red,  and  a  tattered  pair  of  blue- 
cotton  trousers.  Son  of  a  dog !”  he  raved,  as  he  saw  his 
chance  of  early  approach  to  the  gangway  diminished  by  the 
stealthy  advance  of  an  ingenious  rival.  To  impute  that  a 
Persian’s  progenitor  was  canine  rouses  still  more  indignation 
than  is  evoked  even  when  the  averaf^e  Briton  is  told  that  he 
may  trace  his  pedigree  to  an  ape;  to  say  “Pedder  sec!”  to 
a  son  of  Iran  is  as  bad  as  calling  a  Frenchman  “  cochon,”  or 
a  German  ^Glummkopf.”  But  the  triumph  of  the  melon-sell¬ 
er’s  enemy  was  momentary;  a  Russian  sailor,  leaning  over 
the  bulwarks  of  the  steamboat,  snatched  the  skull-cap  from 
the  head  of  the  ingenious  intruder  and  flung  it  into  the  sea, 
exposing  the  shorn  pathway  from  forehead  to  neck,  which  is 
the  mode  of  “  hair-dressing  ”  common  throughout  Persia. 

In  the  terrific  din  caused  by  this  exploit,  there  rose  from 
another  boat  a  tall  Persian  of  melancholy  as]3ect,  with  dark, 
dreamy  eyes  and  handsome  features,  clad  in  a  robe  of  sober 
green  —  a  man  with  air  and  aspect  very  superior  to  those 
of  the  eight  rowers  before  him.  He  had  been  looking  long 
at  us ;  he  laid  his  hand  twice  on  the  front  of  his  fur  hat  as 
he  bowed  in  salutation,  and  then  handed  up  a  card,  which  I 
gladly  saw  was  that  of  Mr.  Henry  A.  Churchill  (who  won  the 
C.B.  for  his  share  in  the  defense  of  Kars  during  the  Crimean 
War,  with  Colonel  Fenwick  Williams  and  others),  the  British 
consul  at  Resht.  I  had  written  to  the  consul — ignorant  that 
Mr.  Churchill,  whom  I  had  met  in  Algiers  during  his  resi¬ 
dence  there  as  consul-general,  held  the  office,  and  he  had 
kindly  sent  this  man  (who  accompanied  us  as  chief  servant 


118  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

to  Teheran)  to  guide  us  to  Resht.  Seeing  me  read  the  card, 
on  which  Mr.  Churchill  had  written  a  recommendation  of 
“Houssein,  the  bearer,”  the  melancholy  Persian  placed  his 
hand  once  more  upon  his  head  to  indicate  that  he  was  Hous- 
sein,  and  at  a  sign  from  me  he  ordered  our  baggage  to  be 
lowered  to  the  boat. 

The  oars  of  our  rowers  reminded  us  of  ‘Hhe  eight  of 
spades they  pulled  with  short,  sharp  digs  in  the  water  as 
we  moved  slowly  to  the  place  where  the  Lake  of  Enzelli 
pours  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Perhbazaar  (I  have  adopted 
throughout  the  ordinary  English  spelling  of  this  word)  River 
into  the  Caspian.  In  front  of  the  wooden  building  which 
serves  as  a  custom-house  at  this  northern  gate  of  Persia, 
there  is  no  landing-place ;  some  ragged,  and  more  than  half- 
naked,  boys  laid  a  plank  from  the  bundle  of  reeds  which 
formed  the  gunwale  of  our  boat  to  the  shore,  and  we  landed, 
following  Houssein  into  the  only  two-storied  house  in  the 
place,  the  first  floor  of  which  was  neatly  spread  with  mats  of 
grass.  There  were  a  few  colored  tiles  over  the  door-ways, 
but  the  whitewashed  walls  were  as  bare  as  the  mud-cement 
of  the  exterior,  and  on  the  matting  there  was  not  an  article 
of  furniture. 

We  had  fasted  for  many  hours;  and  in  that  simple  free¬ 
masonry  of  signs,  familiar  to  all  the  world,  I  made  known 
that  on  landing  in  Persia  we  wanted  something  to  put  in  our 
mouths.  Houssein  had  left  us  to  attend  to  the  baggage,  and 
the  bearded  attendant  seemed  at  once  to  understand  and  ap¬ 
preciate  our  wants.  He  hurried  off,  as  I  supposed,  to  bring 
some  food,  and  soon  re-appeared  with  a  blue-glazed  pitcher  of 
water.  The  pitcher  was  pretty  in  design  and  coloring,  but 
water  was  not  quite  all  that  we  needed.  It  was  not  till  we 
arrived  at  Resht  that  we  discovered  the  full  meaning  of  this 
watery  provision ;  the  house  which  we  had  supposed  to  be  a 
Persian  hotel,  where  we  could  call  for  any  thing — the  kababs 


SADR  AZEM’S  KONAK. 


119 


of  the  bazaars,  the  cakes  of  ISToureddin  Hassan,  or  the  sweet¬ 
meats  of  the  harems— was  indeed  a  villa,  a  ''  koiiak,”  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  acting  Sadr  -A.zem,  the  Prime  Minister  of  Persia, 
in  which,  by  special  ^favor,  we  were  allowed  to  take  shelter 
for  half  an  hour  from  the  sun  while  a  boat  was  being  pre¬ 
pared  to  carry  us  twelve  miles  across  the  Lake  of  Enzelli.  It 
was  the  first  suggestion  of  that  which  is  almost  universal 
throughout  Persia.  The  traveler  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
finding  a  bare  room  in  the  towns.  At  a  palace  the  servants 
in  charge  will  cheerfully,  if  he  looks  likely  to  give  them  a 
present,  put  apartments  at  his  disposal,  and  the  floors  may, 
perhaps,  be  covered  with  matting ;  but  for  all  other  require¬ 
ments  he  must  depend  upon  himself  or  his  own  attendants. 

The  white  awning  and  cushions  of  our  boat  gave  promise 
of  comfort.  The  Shah’s  steam  yacht,  also  white,  w^as  moored 
close  at  hand,  and  soon  we  had  rowed  past  her  to  enter  the 
shallow  lagoon  or  lake  which  lies  between  Enzelli  and  Kesht. 
A  pensive,  slender  lad,  with  features  of  exquisite  form,  took 
his  place  behind  us  at  the  helm.  His  flowing  robe  of  light 
stuff,  resembling  cashmere,  appeared  hardly  suited  for  his 
occupation,  but  he  had  evidently  a  skillful  knowledge  of  the 
currents  and  shallows  of  this  muddy  lake,  upon  which  the  sun 
was  glaring.  The  banks  were  hidden  from  us  by  tall  reeds, 
their  tops  waving  ten  feet  above  the  water;  and  risino-  be- 
hind  this  rustling  fringe,  we  could  see  the  highest  trees  of 
the  rank,  dense  jungle,  which  is  famous  as  the  home  of  ti¬ 
gers,  and  of  the  huge  water-fowl,  which  screamed  and  fluttered 
among  the  reeds  as  we  passed.  It  was  veiy  slow  work  get¬ 
ting  across  the  lake  with  oars  shaped  like  a  baker’s  peel,” 
and  three  hours  had  passed  before  we  reached  the  oozy  banks 
of  the  Peri-bazaar  River.  Then  the  spades  were  shipped,  and 
a  long  rope,  attached  to  the  very  top  of  the  mast,  was  handed 
to  the  shore.  The  rowers  landed,  and  disappeared  among  the 
reeds.  On  the  muddy  bank  they  harnessed  themselves  to 


120 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


the  rope,  which,  descending  to  them  from  the  mast,  touched 
only  the  heads  of  the  reeds  as  they  moved  swiftly  along  the 
river -side.  The  scene  was  as  purely  natural  as  if  we  had 
been  exploring  some  country  never  before  trodden  by  the  foot 
of  man.  The  brown  stream  was  not  more  than  sixty  feet 
wide.  The  current  seemed  to  be  silenced  by  the  weight  of 
mud  suspended  in  the  water;  the  air  was  still  and  oppressive 
between  the  high  walls  of  reeds.  Sometimes,  where,  for  a 
few  yards,  there  were  no  reeds,  we  could  see  the  heads  of  our 
crew,  who  were  pushing  their  way  through  the  grass  of  the 
jungle;  and  now  and  then  there  was  a  buzz,  or  a  loud  lattle 
among  the  reeds,  and  a  gorgeous  pheasant,  or  a  wild  turkey, 
or  a  long-legged  stork  sailed  over  our  heads  to  the  other  side 
of  the  rivei-r  After  being  tugged  in  this  way  for  an  hour,  we 
arrived  at  a  landing-place,  to  which  there  was  a  stony  foot¬ 
path  leading  from  a  large  house  partly  in  ruins.  By  the 
river- side  there  was  a  group  of  people,  excited  at  the  ap¬ 
proach  of  our  boat.  This  was  Peri-bazaar,  from  whence  we 
had  to  ride  seven  miles  —  is  it  not  w’ritten  in  the  Shahs 
X)iary? — to  Resht.  We  bought  some  of  the  only  food  to  be 
obtained  at  Peri-bazaar,  a  few  grapes,  and  about  a  foot  square 
of  the  brown  flabby  bread  of  the  country,  in  thickness  and 
general  appearance  very  like  soaked  leather.  Oui  boxes 
were  hoisted  on  to  the  backs  of  mules,  and  secured  with 
cords  of  camel’s  hair  neatly  plaited ;  the  melancholy  Hous- 
sein  then  grandly  waved  us  to  a  carriage  which  it  appeared 
he  had  specially  retained  for  our  advantage. 

We  were  told  at  Resht  that  this  was  the  one  and  only  car¬ 
riage  in  the  whole  province  of  Ghilan,  recently  imported  from 
Riissia  by  a  khan  of  high  degree,  who,  it  seems,  was  not  above 
letting  it  out  to  Houssein  for  our  use.  It  was,  in  fact,  a 
superannuated  Russian  droschky  of  the  meanest  kind.  W^e 
planted  our  feet  with  utmost  firmness,  and  grasped  the  sides 
for  safety  as  it  moved  off,  uneasy  as  the  waves  of  Enzelli. 


121 


PROVINCE  OF  GHILAN. 

But  for  the  dignity  of  the  thing,  as  the  Irishman  said  of  the 
bottomless  sedan-chair,  one  of  us  would  as  soon  have  walked  j 
but  any  exhibition  of  contempt  might  have  been  the  death  of 
the  gloomy  Houssein,  so  proud  was  he  of  this  chariot.  Tlie 
admiration  of  the  people  of  Peri-bazaar,  who  had  probably 
not  seen  a  wheeled  conveyance  since  his  Imperial  Majesty  the 
Shah  rumbled  that  way  in  a  carriage,  was  an  insufficient  con¬ 
solation.  As  we  rattled  along,  sometimes  between  rice-fields, 
from  which  the  crop  had  been  lately  gathered,  at  others  be¬ 
tween  thick  groves,  there  was  water  always  on  both  sides 
standing  high  in  the  ditches. 

The  province  of  Ghilan,  of  which  liesht  is  the  chief  town, 
must  be  one  of  the  most  fertile  areas  in  the  world.  From 
Enzelli  to  Peri-bazaar,  and  for  miles  beyond  Resht,  the  coun¬ 
try  is  a  flat  marsh,  perennially  manured  with  rank  and  rot¬ 
ting  vegetation.  Yet  in  places  the  richly  green  lane  through 
which  we  approached  Resht  resembled  parts  of  Devonshire. 
The  verdure  was  so  bright,  the  climate  so  agreeable,  we  might 
almost  have  fancied  it  to  be  a  day  of  early  autumn  in  En¬ 
gland,  save  that  at  every  turn  we  met  some  Persian,  long- 
robed  in  blue,  or  yellow,  or  russet-brown,  sometimes  perched 
between  the  humps  of  a  sententious  camel,  sometimes  upon 
the  hinder  extremity  of  a  very  good-looking  donkey,  a  most 
awakening  object  to  one  who  was  dreaming  of  distant  En¬ 
gland.  Wherever  there  was  a  hole,  it  was  filled  with  stag¬ 
nant  water,  which  the  sun  lifted  in  unwholesome  vapors.  The 
undrained  approaches  to  Resht  reeked  with  filth,  and  people 
were  picking  their  way  close  by  the  walls  of  the  houses  and 
gardens,  in  order  to  avoid  the  abyss  of  muddy  slush  which 
awaited  them  in  the  centre.  The  day  was  hot,  but  our  horses’ 
hoofs  were  hidden  in  mud  as  we  passed  through  the  bazaar, 
in  which  there  was  hardly  room  for  our  miserable  carriage 
amidst  the  crowd  which  pressed  to  see  the  strangers. 

The  way  was  so  narrow  that  any  one  of  the  stall-keepers 

G 


122 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


on  either  side  could  have  handed  goods  to  us  from  his  seat. 
But  they  themselves  appeared  far  more  attractive  than  their 
wares;  than  their  gaudy  horse-trappings  of  reddish  leather, 
decorated  with  strips  of  carpets  or  pieces  of  bead- work,  and 
hung  with  red  and  yellow  tassels  of  silk  or  wool,  and  bells  of 
silver  or  brass ;  their  bowls  of  sour  cream,  their  eggs  (many 
of  them  colored  red,  a  common  practice  in  Persia),  pomegran¬ 
ates,  Russian  candles,  tigs,  and  cotton  prints,  some  of  the  last 
from  Manchester,  of  those  special  patterns  which  are  never  to 
be  met  with  in  the  home  markets.  They  all  squat  upon  their 
heels,  in  a  position  peculiar  to  the  Persians — a  posture  which 
no  man  could  assume  whose  joints  had  not  been  trained  to  it 
from  childhood.  From  the  bazaar  we  drove  across*  a  large 
open  space,  resembling  the  “  green  ”  of  many  an  English  vil¬ 
lage.  It  was  dotted  with  trees,  and  boys  were  playing  in  cos¬ 
tumes  which  made  the  sylvan  scene,  one  extremely  pretty  and 
effective,  apj^near  to  our  eyes  almost  theatrical. 

A  few  women  are  seen.  We  met  one  sitting  astride  on 
horseback,  as  all  Eastern  women  ride.  We  believe  them  to 
be  women  because  of  their  costume  and  size;  but  we  can 
see  no  part  of  them,  not  even  a  hand  or  an  eye.  They  are 
shrouded  from  the  head  to  the  knees  in  a  cotton  or  silk  sheet 
of  dark  blue  or  black  ;  the  chudder,”  it  is  called,  which  pass¬ 
es  over  the  head,  and  is  held  with  the  hands  around  and  about 
the  body.  Over  the  “  chudder  ”  there  is  tied  round  the  head 
a  yard-long  veil  of  white  cotton  or  linen,  in  which,  before  the 
eyes,  is  a  piece  of  open  work  about  the  size  of  a  finger,  which 
is  their  only  lookout  and  ventilator.  The  veil  passes  into  the 
‘‘chudder”  at  the  chin.  Every  woman  before  going  out-of- 
doors  puts  on  a  pair  of  loose  trousers,  generally  of  the  same 
r  stuff  and  color  as  the  “chudder,”  and  thus  her  outdoor  se¬ 
clusion  and  disguise  are  complete.  Her  husband  could  not 
recognize  her  in  the  street.  In  this  costume,  Mohammedan 
women  grope  their  way  about  the  towns  of  Persia.  Their 


123 


SHOPPING  IN  BAZAAR, 

trousers  are  tightly  bound  about  the  ankles  above  their  col¬ 
ored  stockings,  which  are  invariably  of  home  manufacture; 
and  slippers,  with  no  covering  for  the  heel,  complete  the  un¬ 
sightly,  unwholesome  apparel  of  these  uncomfortable  victims 
of  the  Persian  reading  of  the  Koran. 

In  the  East  the  appearance  of  guests  is,  we  may  say,  never 
the  first  announcement  of  their  arrival.  From  the  “green” 
of  Kesht,  Houssein  galloped  off  at  a  wild  pace,  and  we  were 
soon  very  kindly  welcomed  by  Mr,  Churchill,  whom,  as  I  have 
said,  I  had  met  in  Algiers,  when  he  was  consul-general  in  that 
jdeasant  colony.  He  and  Mrs.  Churchill  hospitably  entertain¬ 
ed  us  for  a  day  while  we  were  hurriedly  preparing  for  our 
ride  to  Teheran.  On  the  way  to  Persia,  one  learns,  if  igno¬ 
rant  before,  that  in  traveling  there  one  must  be  self-depend¬ 
ent  for  all  but  fruit  and  the  plainest  and  coarsest  of  uncooked 
food ;  yet  with  the  experience  of  Europe,  and  even  of  Pales¬ 
tine  and  Egypt,  where  dragomans  abound,  and  of  Algeria, 
with  its  Arab-French  caravanserais,  a  traveler  is  slow  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  this  can  really  be  the  fact.  The  roughness  of  Rus¬ 
sian  travel,  especially  the  absence  of  bedding,  prepares  one 
for  worse  in  Persia,  and  at  Resht  the  whole  truth  becomes 
evident.  It  is  well  to  be  forewarned  and  forearmed.  We 
were  fortunate  in  meeting,  at  any  price,  with  camp  bedsteads 
and  bedding  of  English  make,  and  into  the  dirt  of  the  Resht 
bazaar  we  plunged  to  obtain  other  necessaries  for  the  journey 
to  Teheran.  The  noise  of  wooden  hammers  upon  metal  pots 
led  us  to  the  department  where  we  had  to  purchase  a  whole 
batterie  de  cuisine.  Intended  for  use  over  what  is  known  in 
England  as  a  gypsy  fire,  none  of  the  Persian  pots  are  pro¬ 
vided  with  handles.  The  Persian  smiths  seem  to  have  no 
faith  in  solder;  perhaps  they  do  not  know  how  to  prepare  it. 
And  all  Persian  pots  are  of  copper;  so  that  after  buying  what 
Houssein  thought  requisite,  we  left  the  saucepans  to  be  tinned 
upon  the  inside — an  operation  which  in  all  Persian  households 


.124 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


is  renewed  at  intervals  of  about  three  weeks.  Houssein  and 
the  servants  of  the  Consulate  kept  off  a  curious  crowd,  who 
appeared  to  be  deeply  interested  in  watching  our  selection  of 
innumerable  yards  of  cotton  for  sheets  and  other  purposes. 
Later  in  the  evening,  our  servant  brought  in,  with  an  air  of 
triumph,  a  folding-table,  which  bore  the  name,  roughly  carved 
upon  its  surface,  of  an  English  officer  of  Royal  Engineers, 
who  had  been  traveling  the  previous  year  in  Persia;  and  to 
Houssein,  when  we  grew  tired  of  shopping,  we  left  the  pur¬ 
chase  of  candlesticks  and  glasses,  saddle-bags  and  bridles,  and 
the  necessary  stores  of  food. 

There  is  but  one  mode  of  traveling  in  the  interior  of  Per¬ 
sia.  Even  from  Resht  to  the  capital,  on  the  most  frequented 
road  in  all  the  empire,  no  carriage  can  travel  except  with  a 
sufficient  number  of  men  to  lift  it  over  places  which  are  oth¬ 
erwise  impassable.  It  was  with  the  help  of  such  bearers 
that  the  Shah  was  able  to  accompany  his  “  carriage.”  Yet 
perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  there  are  two 
modes.  The  traveler  may  buy  horses  and  mules ;  the  average 
cost  will  be  about  ten  pounds  sterling  for  each  animal.  He 
will  then  have  to  provide  pack-saddles  as  well  as  riding-sad¬ 
dles,  and  gholams,  or  grooms,  to  feed  and  load  his  horses  and 
mules;  or  he  may  hire  all  the  animals  he  requires  from  a 
muleteer,  or  “  charvodar.”  In  the  latter  case,  the  horses  will 
not  be  so  good-looking,  but  they  will  probably  know  the 
road,  and  be  quite  as  safe  in  riding  over  rough  paths  which 
are  sometimes  dangerous.  The  charvodar  and  his  gholams 
will  be  responsible  for  the  stabling,  feeding,  and  loading  of 
the  animals.  The  cost  of  a  mule  hired  in  this  way,  from 
Resht  to  Teheran,  is  about  fifty  krans,  or  two  pounds  English, 
for  a  ten  days’  march.  It  is  usual  to  give  the  muleteers  a 
present  at  the  end  of  the  journey  if  they  have  behaved  well — 
a  toman,  about  eight  shillings,  each.  One  may  travel  “cha* 
par  ”  or  “  caravan ;”  the  latter  being  to  the  former  as  goods- 


“kerjavas.”  125 

train  to  express.  In  traveling  cliapar,”  oi’j  as  the  Anglo - 
Persians  say,  in  “chaparing,”  saddle-horses  are  taken  from 
one  post-house  or  station  (‘^menzil”  is  the  Persian  word), 
and  galloped  twelve,  twenty,  or  sometimes  five  -  and  -  twenty 
miles,  to  the  next  station.  Those  who  travel  with  bedsteads 
and  bedding  and  boxes  can  not  travel  chapar.”  They,  with 
their  baggage-mules,  must  form  a  caravan,  and  march  from 
station  to  station  at  a  rate  of  about  three  miles  an  hour,  which 
is  as  fast  as  mules  can  walk.  Those,  in  fact,  are  described  as 
riding  caravan  ”  who  travel  at  the  pace  of  loaded  mules. 

For  men  and  women  who  suffer  from  being  in  the  saddle 
for  so  many  hours,  there  is  a  choice  between  the  ‘‘kerjava” 
and  the  ‘Hakht-i-rawan.”  The  kerjava,  in  its  best  appear¬ 
ance,  takes  the  form  of  two  very  small  gypsy  tents  made  of 
light  bands  of  wood,  the  top  bent  circular,  and  covered  with 
shawls  or  carpets.  In  each  of  these  tents  a  man  or  woman 
sits  after  the  kerjavas  have  been  slung,  like  panniers,  across 
the  saddle  of  a  strong  mule.  In  the  kerjava  one  must  sit 
cross-legged,  or  with  one’s  feet  hanging  out.  The  open  side 
is  sometimes  turned  to  the  tail  of  the  mule,  and  the  rider  can 
not  see  where  the  animal  is  going.  The  kerjava  may  be  sus¬ 
pended  over  a  precipice,  on  the  edge  of  which  the  feet  of  the 
mule  have  but  dangerous  hold;  or  by  sudden  collision  with  an¬ 
other  mule — and  this  often  happens — one  kerjava  is  thrown 
over  the  mule’s  back  upon  the  other,  and  both  fall  heavily  to 
the  ground.  Sometimes  kerjavas  have  no  roof,  are  simply 
strong  panniers  of  wood,  in  which  the  riders  (there  must  be 
two,  or,  if  one,  then  an  equivalent  freight  will  be  required  in 
the  second  kerjava)  are  doubled  up,  their  heads  and  feet  only 
being  visible,  the  body  lost  to  sight  in  the  kerjava,  amidst  a 
substratum  of  pillows  and  carpets.  Although  but  one  mule 
bears  the  burden,  those  who  ride  in  kerjavas  are  very  prop¬ 
erly  made  to  pay  for  two  mules;  and  although  two  mules 
carry  a  takht-i-rawan,  those  who  employ  this,  the  superior 


126 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


form  of  carriage,  pay  for  four  mules.  The  takht-i-rnwaii  is 
used  by  great  ladies  of  the  Shah’s  court,  by  the  aged  and  in¬ 
firm,  and  by  the  ladies  of  the  foreign  embassies.  It  is  not  a 
sedan-chair,  because  the  bottom  is  usually  quite  flat,  level  with 
the  shafts,  and  the  occupant  sits  cross-legged,  or  lies  down 
during  the  journey.  But  the  shafts  are  like  the  four  poles  of 
a  sedan-chair,  and  the  two  mules  are  harnessed  in  them — one 
between  the  two  poles  in  front,  the  other,  with  its  eyes  close 
to  the  body  of  the  carriage,  between  the  two  hinder  poles. 
The  takht-i-rawan  is  a  carriage  built  of  wood,  and  placed 
upon  a  strong  frame-work,  of  which  the  two  long  poles,  form¬ 
ing  the  four  shafts,  are  the  principal  parts.  The  sides  are 
generally  paneled,  in  order  to  obtain  strength  without  weight, 
and  the  roof  of  thin  boards  is  covered  with  coarse  cotton  or 
canvas  to  keep  out  rain.  There  is  usually  a  small  square  of 
glass  in  the  side  doors  to  give  light  when  these  are  closed. 
One  can  rarely  find  a  takht-i-rawan  when  such  a  carriage  is 
wanted ;  they  are  usually  built  to  order,  and  cost  from  six  to 
ten  pounds  sterling.  We  were  in  a  hurry  to  leave  Resht,  and 
not  disposed  to  wait  while  a  takht-i-rawan  was  being  built. 
We  were  anxious  to  escape  to  the  mountains,  away  from  the 
deadly  atmosphere,  the  feverish  swamp  in  which  the  British 
consul  at  Resht  is  doomed  to  live. 

On  the  second  and  last  morning  of  our  stay  in  Resht,  we 
sat  in  Mr.  Churchill’s  room,  the  whole  side  of  which  was  open 
to  the  garden,  transacting  business  with  muleteers  and  sellers 
of  articles  of  every  description.  We  had  little  trouble  in 
agreeing  with  the  charvodar  for  horses  and  mules.  He  was 
a  man  about  middle  age,  whose  hair  and  mustache,  naturally 
dark,  were  made  the  color  of  a  raven’s  wing  with  a  dye  com¬ 
pounded  of  indigo  with  khenna.  Like  all  Persians,  he  was 
shaved  across  the  poll,  the  side  hair  being  led  in  a  curl  be¬ 
hind  the  ear.  He  wore  a  red  turban,  wound  around  a  buff 
skull-cap ;  his  legs  were  bare  to  the  knee,  and  his  socks  and 


CHAEVODAES. 


127 


sandal  shoes  bore  marks  of  much  travel.  A  green  tunic  of 
cotton  left  but  little  of  his  loose  drawers  of  blue  visible,  and 
over  all  he  wore  a  long  garment  of  pale  yellow,  lined  with 
red  cotton,  and  bound  about  Ids  waist  with  a  scarlet  sash. 
He  was  anxious  to  get  back  to  Teheran,  a  distance  from 
Resht  of  two  hundred  miles,  and  fortunately  the  day  was  not 
an  unlucky  one  for  setting  out.  It  is  of  no  use  whatever  to 
engage  with  Persian  muleteers  for  commencing  a  journey  on 
a  day  which  they  consider  unlucky.  They  may  fear  to  dis¬ 
please  or  disobey  openly;  they" may  consent,  but  they  will 
be  certain  to  find  some  means  of  delay.  Once  off,  all  days 
are  alike  to  the  charvodar,  except  that  day  of  the  month  Mo- 
hurrem  on  which  the  death  of  Houssein  is  celebrated. 

There  is  another  rule  which  the  charvodar  always  desires 
to  establish.  On  the  first  day  of  a  march,  it  takes  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  and  a  strong  will  to  get  a  caravan  farther  than 
two  hours’  ride,  or  eight  miles,  from  the  town.  Time  is  not 
a  costly  consideration  in  Persia ;  and  as  for  space,  the  mean¬ 
est  and  poorest  possess  that  great  boon.  It  is  better  always 
to  avoid  Mondays  and  Fridays  in  arranging  for  a  march. 

Fortunately,  the  day  we  selected  was  Thursday,  and  there 
was  no  objection.  We  paid  half  the  price  of  the  hire  of  the 
horses  and  mules,  and  the  charvodar  departed,  to  prepare 
for  settimr  out  in  the  afternoon.  It  is  usual  for  consuls’ 
wives  and  for  people  of  such  quality  in  the  East  to  have  the 
shops  brought  to  them ;  they  lose  a  good  deal,  both  in  pocket 
and  in  amusement,  by  not  visiting  the  bazaars,  and  certainly 
they  have  a  more  limited  choice  of  goods.  Persuaded  not 
to  visit  the  bazaar  a  second  time,  we  had  in  this  way  to  give 
audience  to  the  “  butcher,  the  baker,  the  candlestick-maker,” 
and  to  receive  their  slaves,  loaded  with  goods,  from  which, 
assisted  by  Houssein,  who,  however,  could  not  speak  a  word 
of  any  language  but  Persian,  wc  made  very  satisfactory  se¬ 
lections. 


128 


THEOUGII  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


At  last  every  thing  seemed  ready,  and  the  mules  arrived, 
saddled  and  festooned  with  ropes,  to  be  loaded  for  the  first 
time.  It  is  a  work  of  great  moment.  Every  thing  must  be 
nicely  balanced ;  so  much  on  one  side,  and  about  an  equal 
weight  on  the  other  of  the  high,  heavy  pack-saddle,  which 
the  mule  wears  day  and  night,  and  which  for  weeks  together 
is  never  removed,  except  during  the  very  few  minutes  when 
the  rude  process  of  grooming  is  performed  at  the  end  of  a 
day’s  march.  The  charvodar,  whose  waist  was  now  encircled, 
not  only  by  a  sash,  but  also  by  a  thong  of  leather  wound 
twice  round  his  body,  ending  in  about  a  foot  of  iron  chain, 
eyed  every  box  and  package,  and  with  skillful  hands  adjusted 
the  loads.  The  iron  chain  dangling  from  his  waist  is  the 
ordinary  whip  of  the  Persian  muleteer.  It  w^as  worn  bright 
with  handling  and  with  cruel  application  to  the  legs  of  his 
animals.  The  gholams,  who  were  to  accompany  us,  w- ere  also 
provided  with  thongs  and  chains  of  the  same  sort.  The  char¬ 
vodar  was  engrossed  with  two  of  our  trunks,  which  were  ob¬ 
viously  unequal  in  weight.  He  laid  an  iron  bedstead,  folded 
in  very  small  compass,  ui^on  the  lighter  one,  bound  each  of 
the  trunks  in  coarse  cloth,  then  placed  stout  cords  of  plaited 
camel’s  hair  across  the  saddle  of  a  mule,  and,  summoning  as¬ 
sistance,  had  the  two  packages  lifted  simultaneously,  one  on 
one  side  and  one  on  the  other  of  the  saddle.  This  is  done 
with  many  an  “  IJl-lah  ” — an  invocation  without  which  mule¬ 
teers  rarely  engage  in  any  signal  effort.  “J^’ow,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  let’s  do  our  best,”  is  contained  in  a  liberal  translation 
of  “Ullah”  when  thus  employed;  and  if  there  is  a  box  to  be 
lifted,  or  a  fallen  mule  to  be  reset  upon  its  legs,  or  when  the 
tired  animals  are  to  be  urged  to  a  quicker  walk,  it  is  invaria¬ 
bly  with  an  “Ul-lah”  that  the  effort  is  called  for. 

When  the  second  mule  was  loaded,  we  see  it  is  intended 
that  he  should  lead  the  caravan.  He  is  covered  with  bells, 
which  are  always  ringing,  and  they  are  not  the  ‘Glrowsy 


HOUSSEIN  MOUNTED. 


129 


tinklings  ”  which  may  “  lull  the  distant  fold those  upon  his 
head,  and  a  score  more  suspended  round  his  shoulders  —  all 
these  might  be  said  to  ^Uinkle;”  but  suspended  from  the 
saddle  this  animal  carried  two  bells  almost  big  enough  for  a 
steeple,  the  clangor  of  which  is  terrific.  I  object,  and  urge, 
in  English  so  emphatic  as  to  be  comprehended  by  any  Per¬ 
sian,  that  bags  of  fodder,  to,  say  nothing  of  camp-stools,  and 
carpets,  and  half  a  dozen  saucepans  are  enough;  but  the 
charvodar  will  not  leave  the  bells  behind  him.  He  assures 
me,  with  a  pleasant  smile,  that  “  he,'’  and  “  he,”  and  “  he,” 
pointing  to  the  other  mules,  like  the  bells ;  that,  in  fact,  they 
won’t  go  without  this  perpetual  ding-dong.  Houssein,  who, 
in  spite  of  his  melancholy  appearance,  is  strongly  recom¬ 
mended  as  a  very  good  cook  and  chief  servant,  now  made  his 
appearance  in  full  traveling  costume.  He  was  girt  with  a 
short,  straight  sword,  and  his  long  legs  were  incased  in  yel¬ 
low  leather.  He  loads  his  mule  with  saddle-bags,  and  upon 
these  places  a  large  cushion  made  of  his  pillow  and  over¬ 
coats  ;  then,  in  the  true  Persian  fashion,  he  throws  himself 
on  the  neck  of  the  mule,  and  struggles  to  the  high  seat,  from 
which  his  legs  dangle  in  a  way  that  seems  pleasing  to  Persian 
riders  of  his  class.  He  had  not  forgotten  brooms,  which  Mr. 
Churchill  warned  us  were  very  requisite  in  traveling.  It  had 
been  arransred  that  Houssein  was  to  ride  forward  in  advance 
of  our  arrival  at  a  station,  and  look  to  the  cleaning  of  our 
sleeping-place. 

When  at  last  we  set  out  from  Mr.  Churchill’s  yard,  our 
strinsT  of  horses  and  mules  carried  beds  and  bedding,  carpets, 
tables,  folding  seats,  cooking  utensils,  and  all  the  glass  and 
crockery  necessary  for  simple  meals  in  a  land  where  any  pro¬ 
vision  beyond  an  empty  room  and  a  pillow  of  straw  is  abso-  ♦ 
lately  unattainable,  and  where  the  comforts  of  such  a  service 
of  dragomans  and  tents  as  may  be  had  on  the  deserts  of 
Syria  and  Egypt  have  never  been  heard  of.  Twenty -four 

G* 


130 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


miles  in  a,  day  of  eight  hours,  or  nine,  with  an  hour  for  rest 
in  the  middle  of  the  march,  is  the  ordinary  caravan  rate  of 
traveling ;  and  at  this  pace  we  passed  out  from  the  miserable 
town  of  Resht  into  the  deliciously  green  forest  which,  for 
about  forty  miles,  lies  between  Resht  and  the  barren  ground, 
rising  ruggedly  toward  the  Elburz  Mountains,  which  we  must 
cross  by  the  Pass  of  Kharzan,  on  the  way  to  Teheran. 

Near  sunset,  in  a  small  opening  in  the  forest,  we  approach¬ 
ed  a  building  with  not  a  soul  in  it,  which  looked  like  a  brick- 
built  barn  that  had  long  been  deserted  and  had  fallen  into 
ruin.  At  either  extremity  there  were  the  remains  of  a  brick 
staircase,  which  led,  by  ste]3s  that  by  ruin  had  become  very 
difficult,  to  a  loft  or  apartment  opening  upon  a  wooden  plat¬ 
form.  Our  servants  informed  us  that  this  was  a  station,  that 
there  was  none  other  for  many  miles,  and  that,  in  fact,  this 
was  to  be  our  resting-place  for  the  night.  Both  apartments 
liad  walls  and  floor  of  clay.  There  were  window-frames,  but 
they  were  broken,  and  the  glass  had  fallen  out.  One  room 
was  full  of  brambles,  collected  for  firing  by  some  former  oc¬ 
cupant,  and  in  the  other  there  were  holes  in  the  floor  nearly 
large  enough  for  a  guest  to  fall  through  into  the  mule-shed 
beneath.  Like  the  roof,  the  floor  was  of  mud,  dry,  hard,  and 
dusty,  laid  upon  sticks  and  straw,  which  covered  the  rude 
cross-beams  cut  from  the  forest.  It  was  more  than  half  an 
hour’s  work  to  clear  the  better  room  of  the  brambles,  to  col¬ 
lect  bricks  from  the  ruins  with  which  to  stop  the  holes  in  the 
floor,  to  sweep  the  place  thoroughly,  to  spread  the  floor  with 
our  Persian  carpets,  to  fill  the  empty  window -frames  with 
green  boughs,  and  to  set  up  our  beds.  A  stream  of  water 
ran  near,  and  a  limitless  supply  of  fire-wood  was  at  hand ;  nor 
could  any  one  be  more  skillful  than  Houssein  in  making  a 
stove  of  bricks. 

The  crackling  of  our  fire  soon  brought  creatures  around  us, 
men  and  children  in  rags,  who  seemed  to  be  drawn  from  the 


OUR  CAMP-KITCHEN^. 


131 


very  ground  by  the  smell  of  mutton  and  chicken  in  the  stew- 
pots.  We  sat  on  the  wooden  platform  enjoying  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  fire  in  a  cup  of  tea ;  the  horses  and  mules  were 
feeding  in  a  patch  of  luxurious  grass ;  and  as  the  stillness  in¬ 
creased  at  sunset,  the  forest  seemed  to  grow  into  life  with 
the  noises  of  insects  and  animals.  Our  camp -kitchen  upon 
the  grass  would  have  made  an  interesting  picture.  The 
grand  form  of  Houssein  stalked  now  and  then  before  the 
-  flames.  On  one  side  stood  an  animated  bundle  of  rags,  who 
no  doubt  saw  happy  prospect  of  participation  in  the  remains 
of  the  feast,  from  the  fact  that  he  was  permitted  to  hold  the 
cover  of  a  stew-pot  while  our  major-domo  stirred  the  con¬ 
tents  with  a  wooden  spoon.  I  shouted  for  the  kettle  which 
occupied  a  corner  of  the  fire,  and  other  forms  started  up  in 
willing  service.  Their  joy  was  unbounded  when  we  indulged 
a  hopeful  opinion  that  there  would  be  pillau  enough  for  ev¬ 
ery  body  to  have  some.  But  the  flies  in  their  thousands  in¬ 
sisted  also  upon  their  share  when  the  savory  mess  arrived  on 
our  platform. 

Not  “the  worst  inn’s  worst  room”  could  present  an  ap¬ 
pearance  of  abject  poverty  so  striking  as  the  mud- wails,  the 
broken  roof  and  walls,  and  rough  rafters  of  the  room  into 
which  we  retired  for  the  night.  But  our  beds  were  excel¬ 
lent.  The  air  was  sweet,  and  the  moonlight  so  bright  that 
we  could  see  all  the  rich  colors  of  our  Persian  carpets  upon 
the  floor.  There  were  no  locks  or  fastenings  on  the  door. 
Afterward  we  learned  how  rare  it  is  to  have  a  wooden  door 
in  a  country  where  the  craving  for  fuel  is  with  many  strong¬ 
er  than  the  respect  for  property.  We  barricaded  the  en¬ 
trance  with  trunks,  and  slept  for  some  hours  during  the  first 
night  of  our  ride  through  Persia. 


132 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Month  Ramadan. — Mohammed’s  First  Wife. — Ramadan  in  the  Koran. 
— The  Nocturnal  Kalian. — Loading  Up. — A  Persian  Landlord. — Persian 
Money  :  Tomans,  Krans,  and  Shihees. — Counting  Money. — Persian  Mints. 
—  Rich  Provinces.  — Kudem.  — Chapar-khanah.  — Bala-khanah.  — Con¬ 
structed  to  Smoke.  —  Caravanserais.  —  Unfurnished  Apartments.  —  Our 
Bell-mule. — A  Traveled  Khan. — The  Safid-Rud. — Rustemabad. — ^Village 
of  Rhudbar. — Parchenar. — Khan  offers  his  Tree. — A  Night  in  the  Open. 
— Mistaken  for  a  Thief. — “The  Bells  !” — Camels  in  the  Path. 

It  is  the  month  Ramadan,  the  great  Mohammedan  fast. 
Our  servants,  as  good  Mussulmans,  have  to  do  all  their  eating 
and  smoking  between  sunset  and  sunrise ;  and,  unfortunately 
for  our  repose,  they  do  much  talking  at  the  same  inconvenient 
time.  In  every  great  town  throughout  Persia  a  cannon  is 
fired  in  the  evening  and  morning,  to  signalize,  the  moment 
when  the  fast  ends  and  is  to  be  resumed. 

Mohammed  ordained  that  the  month  Ramadan  should  be 
thus  held  sacred,  because  it  was  then  that  he  first  conceived 
his  prophetic  mission.  He  had  lately  risen  in  the  world,  as 
other  leaders  of  men  hav6  done,  by  an  advantageous  match. 
Mohammed,  at  first  the  servant,  the  manager  of  her  caravans, 
became  the  husband  of  the  rich  widow  of  Mecca,  Khadijah,  a 
woman  who  appears  throughout  her  life  to  have  commanded 
his  affection  and  respect.  She  was  his  elder  in  years,  and 
Mohammed  was  forty  when,  in  a  cave  beneath  Mount  Hara, 
he  disclosed  to  Khadijah,  with  all  the  nervous  energy  of  his 
temperament,  his  visions,  and,  as  he  alleged,  the  promise  of 
God  that  through  his  mouth  should  be  poured  out  the  laws 
of  mankind.  Khadijah  was  Mohammed’s  first  convert.  This 
occurred  in  Ramadan,  and  therefore  it  was  written  in  the 


THE  NOCTUKNAL  KALIAN". 


133 


Koran  that  “  in  the  month  of  Ramadan  shall  ye  fast,  in  which 
the  Koran  was  sent  down  from  heaven.”  All  lawful  enjoy¬ 
ments,  including  eating  and  drinking,  may  be  taken  during 
the  night,  until  ye  can  plainly  distinguish  a  white  thread 
from  a  black  thread  by  the  day- break;  then  keep  the  fast 
until  night.  These  are  the  prescribed  bounds  of  God.”"^ 

Sleeping  in  the  wood  near  Resht,  I  was  awaked  several  times 
in  the  night  by  the  ceaseless  stream  of  talk  going  on  beneath 
our  resting-place ;  the  intervals  being  audibly  filled  with  the 
gurgling  of  the  narghileh,  or  hookah,  the  “  kalian,”  as  the  Per¬ 
sians  call  their  social  pipe,  which  is  the  inevitable  accompani¬ 
ment  of  every  long  rest  on  the  road,  and  of  every  hospitable 
reception  or  entertainment.  Correctly  speaking,  this  can  only 
be  called  “  narghileh  ”  when  the  water-bowl  is  the  shell  of  a 
cocoa-nut,  for  v^hich  I  believe  the  Arabic  word  is  “  narghil.” 
The  Persians  smoke  but  little,  and  no  man  seems  to  regard  a 
pipe  as  entirely  his  own.  On  a  march,  a  great  prince  receives 
his  jeweled  kalian  on  horseback;  and  when  the  lips  of  his 
highness  are  satisfied,  the  tube  passes  to  those  of  his  follow¬ 
ers  and  servants.  Among  the  lowest  classes  of  the  people,  a 
reed  pipe,  with  an  earthenware  bowl,  is  commonly  used  in 
traveling,  and  this  passes  in  like  manner  from  hand  to  hand. 
The  smoke  is  always  and  at  all  times  co-operative.  To  pre¬ 
pare  the  kalian,  the  tobacco  is  damped  and  placed  in  the  pipe 
beneath  a  thick  layer  of  live  charcoal. 

For  my  own  part,  I  prefer  the  smell  of  a  wood  fire  such  as 
that  the  odor  of  which  easily  found  a  way  through  the  many 
holes  in  the  walls  and  floor  of  our  room,  and  awoke  us  with  a 
pleasant  sense  that  the  sun  would  soon  rise,  and  that  a  kettle 
was  about  to  boil  for  the  purposes  of  breakfast.  In  the  morn- 
in  gt  air,  which  in  these  Persian  lowlands  was  somewhat  too 
dewy,  an  hour  passed  quickly  while  the  horses  and  mules 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran,”  chap.  ii. 


134 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN.  * 


were  being  caught  and  loaded.  Then  from  beside  the  ashes 
of  our  camp-fire  arose  a  personage  dressed  in  a  long,  bine 
robe  of  ragged  and  dirty  cotton,  who  appeared  to  claim  the 
rights  of  a  landlord  over  the  remains  of  the  ruined  shed  in 
which,  thanks  to  our  purchases  at  Resht  and  our  other  pos¬ 
sessions,  we  had  slept  not  uncomfortably.  The  landlords  of 
Persian  “  chapar-khanahs,”  or  post-houses,  do  not  present  a 
bill  with  a  bow  and  a,  grimace,  in  the  European  method  ; 
all  their  accounts  are,  the  same  with  Mohammedans  and  with 
Christians,  discharged  verbally.  This  one,  after  the  invari¬ 
able  manner  of  his  kind  in  dealing  with  a  European,  lifted 
his  joined  hands  to  the  sky  and  muttered  something  about 
“  Allah  ”  and  the  “  sahib.”  Then  he  presented  both  j^alins 
laid  together,  hollowed  large  enough  to  hold  five  hundred 
krans.  The  order  of  payment  is  of  the  what-you-please  ” 
character;  but  whether  you  put  five  or  ten  silver  pieces  into 
those  khenna-dyed  hands,  you  will  get  no  word  of  thanks; 
the  Persian  language  has  no  equivalent  for  ‘‘thank  you.” 
Such  an  expression  could  only  be  conveyed  in  Persian  by 
words  glorifying  the  giver.  But  in  any  case  the  action  will 
be  the  same ;  the  “  landlord  ”  will  stare  at  the  coins,  exhibit 
them  to  the  by-standers,  and  extend  his  joined  palms  again 
to  the  giver  for  any  addition. 

The  Persian  money  is  not  the  least  queer  tiling  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  Every  body  talks  of  “  tomans,”  which  are  gold  coins  of 
the  nominal  value  of  ten  krans.  But  the  small  remnant  of 
this  gold  coinage  is  sold  as  a  curiosity  in  the  bazaars  at  twelve 
or.  thirteen  krans  for  each  gold  toman.  Virtually,  there  are 
but  three  coins  in  the  currency  of  Persia  :  the  silver  kran,  the 
half  kran,  or  penabat,  and  the  shihee.  The  value  of  the  kran, 
w'hich  is  of  pure,  unalloyed  silver,  is  about  equivalent  to  that 
of  a  franc.  It  is  a  small  piece  of  metal,  intended  to  be  cir¬ 
cular,  upon  which  the  Shah’s  stamp  may  have  fallen  full}’’,  or 
may  have  left  but  half  an  impression.  Krans  are  often  rag- 


PERSIAN  MONEY. 


135 


ged  at  the  edges,  as  pieces  of  dougli  would  be  if  subjected  to 
the  same  process,  and  every  important  town  in  Persia  has  a 
mint.  The  gold  coinage  has  been  exported,  to  pay  for  im¬ 
ports  of  foreign  manufactures ;  and  it  seems  that  the  silver  is 
following  the  same  course,  and  that  Persia  is  being  drained 
of  the  precious  metals.  It  is  a  hard  morning’s  work  to  count 
a  hundred  pounds  sterling  in  the  silver  currency  of  Persia. 
The  labor  is  generally  shunned  by  employers,  and  trusty  serv¬ 
ants  become  skilled  in  the  business.  The  method  is  always 
the  same.  The  money-changer  and  the  receiver  sit  upon  the 
floor;  the  changer  throws  down  from  his  hand  the  krans  by 
fives,  and  both  payer  and  payee  keep  in  mind  the  number  of 
tomans  by  repeating  it  all  the  while  in  an  audible  mutter. 
Thus,  while  the  first  ten  krans  are  being  poured  out,  they 
say  ^tyek  [one]  yek^ — yek — yek  then,  while  the  “ties”  are 
mounting  to  twenty,  they  say  “  du  [two]  du — du — du,”  and 
so  on.  It  is  very  rarely  that  such  a  servant  as  Houssein 
makes  an  error  in  counting. 

As  to  coining,  that  is  carried  on  in  all  manner  of  ways. 
During  our  stay  in  Persia,  the  Shah  had  two  Austrian  ofii- 
cials,  who  were  engaged,  to  the  disgust  of  the  Persians  of  the 
court,  in  arranging  for  the  issue  of  money.  They  had  been 
a  year  in  the  country,  and  were  so  successfully  thwarted  that 
nothing  had  been  accomplished  by  these  detested  Europeans. 
A  clever  khan,  whose  acquaintance  we  made  in  the  capital, 
had  a  coining-machine  sent  from  Paris  at  his  own  expense ; 
and  with  the  aid  of  this  lie  last  year  presented  the  Shah  with 
some  specimen  coins,  remarking  at  the  same  time  upon  the 
dilatoriness  of  the  Austrians.  The  consequence  was  that  he 
received  orders  to  proceed  with  his  manufacture ;  and  now 
new  krans  and  penabats  are  occasionally  to  be  seen.  But  base 
money  is  becoming  more  and  more  common,  I  am  told,  in  Per¬ 
sia.  People  who  affect  to  know,  and  who  are  certainly  in  a 
position  to  be  well  informed,  declare  that  most  of  the  bad 


130 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAX. 


money  comes  from  the  imperial  mints ;  and  if,  say,  a  master 
of  a  mint  has  a  salary  of  a  thousand  tomans,  and  is  able  and 
willing,  in  order  to  retain  his  office,  to  give  presents  to  the 
value  of  twenty  thousand  tomans — which  I  am  assured  is  the 
case  with  at  least  one  of  these  officers — the  fact  would,  to  say 
the  least,  throw  much  suspicion  upon  his  issue. 

There  is  a  copper  coinage,  the  shihee,  of  which  twenty  make 
a  kran.  But  there  are  no  shihees,  there  are  only  half-shihees ; 
and  it  seems  to  be  the  abiding  and  unvarying  conviction  of 
Persian  servants  that  this  coinage,  which  is  for  the  most  part 
stamped  with  the  well-known  Persian  combination  of  the  lion 
and  sun,  is  not  sufficiently  valuable  for  Europeans  to  handle. 
The  odd  shihees  in  any  purchase  or  any  settlement  of  expend¬ 
iture  are  never  forthcoming;  the  real  value  is  much  greater 
than  the  nominal  worth,  and  perhaps  Persian  servants  do  not 
like  to  see  the  premium  lost  by  unthrifty  masters.  Possibly 
this  is  the  reason  why  they  collect  and  sell  them  wholesale  for 
their  private  advantage,  at  about  twenty-five  per  cent,  increase 
upon  the  nominal  value  of  the  coins. 

No  other  part  of  Persia  is  so  fertile  as  the  wooded  borders 
of  the  Caspian  Sea,  through  which  we  passed  from  Enzelli 
to  the  Elburz  Mountains.  Every  need  of  a  large  population 
might  be  supplied  from  this  marvelously  prolific  soil;  the  ex¬ 
port  of  silk  would  provide  foreign  produce  in  abundance; 
and  the  malarious  fevers,  from  which  nearly  every  one  suf¬ 
fers,  would  disappear,  if  these  low  lands  upon  the  coast  were 
properly  drained.  The  rivers  are  full  of  fish,  including  stur¬ 
geon  and  salmon.  The  field  would  produce  tea,  tobacco,  and 
rice,  while  the  forests,  swarming  with  game,  supply  food  for 
myriads  of  silk-worms.  Silk  is  the  chief  article  of  commerce 
in  this  province  of  Ghilan,  and  both  the  quantity  and  value  of 
the  export  are  capable  of  great  extension.  But  it  is  in  har¬ 
mony  with  all  other  things  in  Persia,  to  find  in  this  a  rapid 
and  serious  decline.  Mr.  Churchill,  the  British  consul  at 


KUDEir. 


137 


Resht,  ill  an  elaborate  report  upon  the  silk-trade,  addressed  to 
Lord  Derby,  has  shown  that  within  the  brief  space  of  seven 
years  the  value  of  the  silk  produced  in  the  province  of  Ghilan 
has  fallen  from  seven  hundred  thousand  pounds  to  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  four  thousand  pounds. 

Through  the  green  and  winding  path  of  the  forest,  which 
would  seem  interminable  but  for  the  glimpses  of  the  gray 
mountains  we  catch  from  time  to  time,  and  which  we  know 
we  have  to  cross,  we  approached  Kudem,  the  end  of  our 
second  day’s  march.  When  we  alighted  in  the  door-way  of 
the  chapar-khanah,”  one  of  the  best  post-houses  in  Persia, 
in  front  of  the  brick  stairs  leading  to  the  “  bala-khanah,”  the 
raised  apartment  we  were  to  occupy,  we  insisted  upon  hav¬ 
ing  the  heavy  pack-saddles  removed  from  off  the  backs  of 
our  mules — an  order  which  was  regarded  by  the  charvodar 
as  the  silly  whim  of  ignorant  eccentrics.  Perhaps,  as  like 
other  Eastern  peoples,  Persians  do  not  lay  aside  their  own 
clothes  at  night,  they  suppose  their  mules  prefer  to  carry  a 
high  and  heavy  structure  composed  of  wood,  straw,  carpet, 
and  leather,  on  their  backs  through  all  the  hours  of  repose. 
Our  mules  seemed  to  express  their  own  opinion  by  enjoying 
a  prolonged  roll  on  the  grass.  For  our  own  refreshment,  the 
invariable  chicken  was  soon  boiling  in  one  of  our  traveling 
stew-pots.  I  should  have  looked  forward  to  the  result  with 
greater  pleasure  if  I  had  not  seen  the  chicken  running  about 
an  hour  before  it  was  reduced  to  this  condition.  Our  apart¬ 
ment,  though  not  very  clean,  was  large,  and  had  a  boarded 
floor.  It  was  placed  over  the  archway  leading  to  the  stable- 
yard,  and  the  question  of  ventilation  was  easily  settled  by 
the  existence  of  a  large  hole  in  the  floor,  which,  after  the 
manner  of  ice-men  in  the  parks,  we  thought  it  desirable  to 
mark  with  a  flag  of  white  paper  as  decidedly  “dangerous.” 

The  chapar-khanah  of  Kudem  is,  I  think,  the  best  in  Per¬ 
sia,  but  in  outward  form  it  resembles  the  usual  construction. 


138 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARA  VAX. 


The  chapar-khanah  is  always  inclosed  with  a  wall  built  of 
raud- bricks,  brown,  sun-baked,  and  friable,  plastered  over 
with  a  coarse  cement  of  mud  mixed  with  broken  straw.  The 
entrance  archway  is  secured  by  a  strong  gate.  In  the  cen¬ 
tre  is  a  quadrangular  yard  for  horses  and  mules,  and  round 
three  sides  are  flat-roofed  sheds,  one  side  of  which  is  formed 
bv  the  outer  wall.  The  sheds  are  for  the  animals  and  their 
drivers,  who  all  sleep  together  in  the  winter  months.  On 
the  fourth  side,  near  the  gate,  there  are  generally  two  or 
three  windowless  and  doorless  sheds,  plastered  inside  with 
mud,  having  a  hole  in  one  corner  for  a  fire-place,  which  in¬ 
variably  smokes.  But  perhaps  the  more  common  arrange¬ 
ment  is  for  these  places  to  have  a  hole  somewhere  in  the  roof, 
and  then  the  fire  can  be  lighted  on  any  part  of  the  floor.  In 
this  way  the  smoke  is  blinding;  but  if  a  Persian  has  not  his 
eyes  and  mouth  full  of  smoke,  he  seems  not  to  think  he  is 
getting  fully  the  worth  of  his  fire -wood,  which  is  always 
costly.  A  smoky  chimney  appears  to  be  not  at  all  unpopular 
in  a  country  where  no  necessary  of  life  is  so  dear  as  fuel. 
These  two  or  three  holes  or  hovels  are  used  by  native  travel¬ 
ers,  and  it  was  in  one  of  these  places  that  our  servants  pre¬ 
pared  our  food. 

We  very  rarely  met  with  a  chapar-khanah  which  had  not 
a  bala-khanah.  The  latter  word  would  seem  to  have  some 
philological  connection  with  “  balcony,”  because  it  is  used  to 
denote  any  apartment  above  the  ground-floor;  and  the  most 
distinctive  feature  of  a  Persian  apartment  thus  elevated  is 
the  platform  which  the  occupant  enjoys  upon  the  flat  roof  of 
the  lower  buildings.  Inside  the  quadrangle,  near  the  door¬ 
way,  there  are,  as  a  rule,  two  ways  to  the  bala-khanah;  high 
steps  in  the  stable  wall,  by  which  one  climbs  to  the  roof  and 
the  level  of  the  bala-khanah.  This  single  room,  the  sole  erec¬ 
tion  above  the  flat  roof  of  the  parallelogram-shaped  stables, 
is  generally  about  eight  feet  square,  built,  like  all  the  rest,  of 


PRECAUTIONS  AGAINST  COLD. 


139 


mud -bricks  and  covered  with  mud -cement.  The  rafters  of 
the  roof  are  usually  festooned  with  cobwebs ;  the  walls  are 
grimy  with  issues  from  the  fire-place,  which  is  rudely  con¬ 
structed  to  smoke.  Indeed,  we  often  found  the  flue  purpose¬ 
ly  stopped  witli  clay  and  stones  which  had  been  placed  there 
by  thrifty  Persians  who,  having  lighted  a  fire  of  wood  on  a 
winter’s  evening,  had  stopped  the  chimney,  in  their  desire  for 
economy  of  heat.  As  a  rule,  there  are  two  or  three  door¬ 
ways  without  doors,  and  sometimes  a  hole  or  two  intended 
for  windows.  If  the  wood  fire  smokes,  one  is  glad  to  have 
no  door  until  tlio  charred  wood  is  flung  outside,  and  the  pure 
wind  of  evening  has  blown  the  pungent  odor  from  the  place. 

Upon  the  high  table-land  extending  from  Teheran  beyond 
Shiraz,  the  nights  are  intensely  cold  from  December  to  April, 
and  a  fire  is  necessary  in  these  vile  lodgings.  When,  as  is 
the  rule,  there  is  no  door,  the  traveler  nails  up  a  horse-cloth, 
a  ‘‘  nummud,”  as  the  Persians  call  their  serviceable  felts  of 
pressed  camel’s  hair,  or,  better  still,  the  canvas  door  of  a  mili¬ 
tary  tent;  and  when  the  same  work  has  been  performed  at 
the  other  doors,  and  about  the  holes  which  serve  as  udndows, 
and  the  breeze,  to  which  the  bala-khanah  is  pre-eminently  ex¬ 
posed,  is  thus  partially  blocked  out,  the  thermometer  may 
possibly,  in  the  warmest  hours  of  a  January  night,  creep  as 
high  as  zero.  In  the  summer  and  autumn,  in  such  heat  as 
that  in  whicli  we  rode  from  Resht  to  Teheran,  there  are 
worse  discomforts  than  a  freezing  temperature.  The  bala- 
khanah,  which  in  winter  is  free  from  vermin,  then  swarms 
with  the  most  troublesome  of  insects. 

In  the  caravanserais,  of  which  there  is  generally  one  near  to 
every  chapar-khanah,  the  traveler  has  no  trouble  whatever 
about  windows,  because  there  are  none.  Around  the  laro-e 
horse-yard  there  are  a  number  of  dark  arches,  opening  upon 
a  brick  terrace,  raised  about  three  feet  above  the  yard.  Gen¬ 
erally,  the  arches  have  a  circular  hole  in  the  roof  for  the  out- 


140 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


let  of  the  smoke ;  but  sometimes  there  is  a,  flue.  The  end  of 
the  arch  next  the  yard  is  fllled  with  rough  masonry,  a  square 
door-way  being  left,  in  which,  if  one  wishes  for  privacy  or 
in  winter  for  greater  warmth  than  that  of  a  north  wind  ca¬ 
reering  over  miles  of  snow — there  must  be  nailed  some  cov'- 
ering  from  the  traveler’s  baggage.  But  whether  in  chapar- 
khanah  or  caravanserai,  his  baggage  must  include  every  thing, 
and  for  security  all  must  be  placed  with  him  or  his  servants, 
in  their  respective  arches  of  the  caravanserai,  upon  the  dusty 
floor  of  the  bala-khanah,  or  in  one  of  the  mud  caverns  near 
the  gate,  which  may  during  the  previous  night  have  been 
used  as  a  stable  for  mules.  Every  morning  and  evening  an 
hour  is  spent  in  packing  and  unpacking,  in  loading  and  un¬ 
loading.  On  arriving,  the  apartment  is  bare,  littered  Avith 
the  rubbish  of  the  last  occupier,  and,  on  going  out,  there  is 
little  danger  of  forgetting  any  part  of  one’s  baggage.  It  is 
only  necessary  to  see  that  the  place  is  stripped  of  every 
thins: ;  that  nothing  useful  remains  behind ;  there  will  be  no 
risk  of  taking  aught  that  does  not  belong  to  the  traveler. 

We  lieft  Kudem  in  the  morning,  when  the  grass  was  wet 
with  dew,  and  the  unrisen  sun  shoAved  the  outline  of  the 
mountains  in  a  clear,  gray  light.  When  the  forest  Avas  at  its 
stillest  hour,  our  little  caravan  moved  on  toward  Rustema- 
bad,  but  not  noiselessly.  In  spite  of  our  protests,  the  first 
horse  carried  a  Avholo  peal  of  bells  5  bells  on  his  neck  and 
bells  on  his  hind  quarters,  bells  Avhich  I  had  heard  tinkling  in 
some  distant  pasture  during  the  night,  and  that  rang  in  our 
ears  all  the  day  long.  These  Avere  gentle  in  their  tones,  com¬ 
pared  Avith  the  tAvo  “  Big  Bens,”  each  nine  inches  high  and 
four  Avide  at  the  mouth,  Avhich  I  had  argued  against  at  Resht 
to  no  purpose,  and  Avhich  Avere  still  carried  by  one  of  our 
baggage  -  mules.  At  times  Ave  urged  our  horses  onward  to 
escape  from  the  sonorous  stroke  of  these  dreadful  bells ;  but 
Tydides,  as  aa’'c  named  the  bell-mule,  Avas  ever  “rushing  to 


A  TRAVELED  KHAN. 


141 


the  war.”  His  step  was  fastj  and  the  projecting  trunks  with 
which  he  was  loaded  were  terrible  when  he  charged  upon  us. 
Subject  to  his  load,  he  was,  to  a  great  extent,  the  master  of 
his  own  actions ;  the  course  was  completely  open  to  him. 
At  about  two  feet  distant  from  each  of  his  sides  the  sharp 
iron-bound  angle  of  a  wooden  trunk  projected.  An  ancient 
Briton  with  scythes  attached  to  the  wheels  of  his  chariot 
could  hardly  have  been  a  more  dreadful  neighbor.  When¬ 
ever  the  clang  of  his  bells  was  heard  close  behind,  we  looked 
to  our  legs  'with  fond  solicitude,  and  hurried  away.  Tydides 
was  utterly  careless  of  the  wounds  he  inflicted  upon  us  with 
our  own  trunks  for  his  weapons  of  war. 

In  traveling  “  caravan,”  that  is,  at  walking  pace,  in  the  long 
hours  of  the  day’s  journey,  and  especially  in  the  presence  of 
beautiful  scenery,  one  often  becomes  listless  and  inattentive — 
an  attitude  which  certainly  will  bring  into  painful  operation 
the  too  dangerous  proclivities  of  caravan  mules  and  horses. 
If  the  road  is  inclosed,  these  animals  will  probably  turn  ev¬ 
ery  corner  with  an  eye  to  saving  distance,  rather  than  of  re¬ 
gard  for  the  full  space  required  for  the  rider’s  legs ;  and  when 
the  path  is  on  one  side  precipitous,  if  his  legs  are  not  forced 
against  the  rocky  side  of  the  path,  he  will  be  taken  to  the  ex¬ 
treme  outside  edge,  on  which  a  stumble  or  a  tiny  land -slip 
would  probably  prove  fatal.  When  we  emerged  from  the 
forest,  our  path  began  to  be  of  the  latter  sort — a  track  made 
with  no  regard  for  level,  but  simply  up  and  down  the  stony 
ledges,  over  the  spurs  of  hills  which  had  been  broken  by  the 
course  of  the  yellow  river,  the  Safid-Rud,  the  windings  of 
which  we  had  now  to  follow  for  about  fifty  miles. 

W^e  were  riding  in  the  outskirts  of  the  forest,  when  a  Per¬ 
sian,  whose  dress  and  saddle-cloth  proclaimed  him  to  be  a 
man  of  rank,  overtook  us.  He  wore  the  usual  high  black  hat, 
with  a  peak  strapped  round  it  upon  the  side  from  which  the 
rays  of  the  morning  sun  were  already  hot,  a  coat  of  light  cot- 


142 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


ton,  the  skirt  thickly  gathered  at  the  waist;  very  loose  trou¬ 
sers  of  black  satin,  and  high  riding- boots  rising  above  the 
knee.  He  had  evidently  learned  all  that  was  to  be  known 
about  us  at  Kudem,  and  surprised  me  with  Good-morning, 
sare.”  He  was  a  handsome  man,  but  there  was  something 
artificial  in  his  face.  The  ambition  in  Persia  to  have  a  black 
or  red  beard  is  overmastering.  For  the  former  color  the 
Persians  mix  indigo  with  khenna,  and  it  was  with  this  mixt¬ 
ure  that  his  hair  and  beard  were  dyed  a  blue-black.  Years 
ago,  he  said,  he  had  been  attached  to  the  Persian  Legation  in 
London,  and  even  now  he  told  us  he  liked  to  be  “very  En¬ 
glishman.-’  The  ideas  of  the  khan  (I  will  not  further  identify 
him)  on  the  subject  of  baggage  appeared  to  be  enviably  sim¬ 
ple.  His  servant  carried  saddle-bags  which  contained  a  brass 
samovar  (the  Russian  kettle),  a  couple  of  small  carpets,  a 
well-stuffed  pillow,  two  or  three  coats,  and  a  few  pomegran¬ 
ates.  He  was  traveling  “chapar,”  posting,  upon  his  own 
horse,  and  could  proceed  at  trot  or  gallop.  I  had  reason  to 
know  all  this  in  the  course  of  a  twelve  days’  journey,  in 
which  the  khan  kindly  insisted  on  keeping  company  with  our 
caravan,  partly,  as  he  said,  because  in  Persia  nobody  travels 
alone  if  he  can  help  it;  partly,  I  think,  because  he  wished  to 
be  well  spoken  of  to  the  English  minister  and  the  Persian 
Government  in  Teheran  by  an  Englishman ;  and  not  a  little 
from  a  kindly,  genuine  desire  to  be  of  service  to  us. 

The  exquisite  scenery  through  which  we  were  passing 
seemed  to  give  him  no  special  pleasure.  The  sun  had  risen 
gloriously  above  the  mountain  peaks,  varying  in  height  from 
ten  to  fifteen  thousand  feet.  The  bare  sides  of  the  Elburz 
chain  showed  almost  every  known  tint  of  color.  The  bright 
reds  and  greens  of  these  mountains  can  mean  nothing  less 
than  that  they  are  metalliferous  to  enormous  richness.  The 
yellow  stream  of  the  Safid-Rud,  stretching  sometimes  over  a 
bed  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width,  ran  between  the  mountains 


KUSTEMABAD. 


143 


and  our  path,  which  was  for  miles  overhung  with  trees.  In 
the  woody  hollows  we  sometimes  forded  rushing  streams 
which  covered  the  knees  of  our  mules,  then  mounted,  a  hill, 
to  dip  again  into  the  next  watery  hollow,  where  beside  the 
stream  grass  grew  deliciously  green;  and  our  active  mule¬ 
teers,  careful  in  nothing  so  much  as  to  keep  their  feet  mod¬ 
erately  dry,  walked,  sure-footed  as  goats,  across  a  prostrate 
tree,  which  in  every  difficult  case  formed  the  only  bridge. 

Tlie  sun  was  intensely  hot  when  we  reached  Rustemabad, 
at  two  o’clock,  having  passed  through  a  mud -built  village 
which  lent  its  name  to  the  station.  The  buildings  of  the  vil- 
lage  were  of  the  simplest  order ;  the  material,  the  river-mud 
mixed  with  chopped  straw ;  the  flat  roofs  of  the  same  mate¬ 
rial  laid  upon  what  in  England  we  should  call  bavin- wood, 
which  rested  on  rafters  placed  upon  the  mud-walls.  A  round 
hole  here  and  there  in  the  mud  roof  served  for  a  chimney. 
The  huts  were  so  close  together  that  there  was  not  left  a 
roadway  of  more  than  three  yards  in  the  bazaar,  where  grapes, 
pomegranates,  melons,  green  figs,  fowls,  and  ropes  of  camel’s 
hair  were  exposed  for  sale. 

As  usual,  a  servant  had  gone  forward  to  prepare  and  fur¬ 
nish  the  room  which  we  were  to  occupy,  but  the  nature  of  the 
floor  defied  the  efforts  of  any  broom  to  remove  the  dust.  The 
apartment  had  six  windows  and  three  doors.  In  the  former, 
half  the  glass  was  gone,  and  the  doors  had  never  seen  a  lock. 
In  fact,  locks  are  not  used  in  Persia.  The  Persians  have  not 
as  yet  advanced  further  than  bolts  and  padlocks  of  the  rudest 
manufacture. 

We  had  just  succeeded  in  getting  our  beds  set  up,  our  car¬ 
pets  spread,  and  tea  made,  when  we  received  a  visit  of  cere¬ 
mony  from  the  khan,  who  was  immensely  amused  at  my  elab¬ 
orately  made  bed,  with  sheets  and  counterpane  in  the  good 
English  fashion,  and,  on  my  returning  his  visit,  contrasted 
his  simple  carpet  and  pillow  with  my  complicated  arrange- 


144 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


meiits.  He  had  courteously  given  up  to  us  the  only  room 
which  had  doors.  In  his  resting-place  there  had  been  win¬ 
dows,  but  there  were  now  only  the  wide  openings.  However, 
the  samovar  was  boiling,  and  we  had  a  glass  of  tea  in  the 
Persian  manner — that  is,  very  weak,  without  milk,  and  with 
an  almost  sickening  quantity  of  sugar.  Next  morning,  on 
resuming  our  journey,  we  passed  through  groves  of  olives, 
quite  unfenced,  the  trees  growing  in  rich  and  well- watered 
oases  by  the  river’s  side,  through  the  mud  village  of  Rhud- 
bar,  w'ealthy  in  splendid  fruits.  We  bought  a  delicious 
melon  for  the  value  of  twopence  English,  and  grapes  more 
luscious  than  those  of  Italy  or  Spain  for  less  than  a  half-penny 
a  pound.  Near  the  end  of  the  day’s  march,  we  crossed  the 
river  by  a  bridge  and  arrived  at  Manjil,  another  mud-built 
village.  We  had  risen  above  the  level  of  universal  richness 
which  belongs  only  to  the  provinces  of  Persia  which  border 
the  Caspian  Sea.  Now  our  road  lay  through  an  arid  coun¬ 
try,  which  was  only  green  near  the  river,  or  where  artificial 
irrigation  made  an  oasis. 

We  left  Manjil  on  the  18th  of  October,  about  daylight,  and 
at  nine  o’clock  forded  the  river  three  times,  which  was  high 
enough  to  be  quite  inconvenient ;  and  as  we  approached 
Parchenar,  the  resting-place  for  the  night,  we  anticipated  bad 
things  of  that  station,  on  seeing  that  there  was  nothing  above 
the  ground-floor  level  of  the  buildings.  The  inclosure  was,  as 
usual,  occupied  by  mules,  and  littered  with  dirty  straw.  A 
tall  old  Persian,  dressed  in  the  blue-cotton  robe  and  trousers 
common  to  the  peasantry  and  working-classes  of  the  country, 
showed  us  a  hole  in  the  wall,  leading,  upon  the  same  level  as 
the  yard,  into  what  was  a  stable  or  a  dwelling  room,  but  what 
in  another  position  every  one  would  call  a  dungeon :  a  stone- 
built  room,  with  no  window  of  any  sort,  dark  but  for  a  fire 
of  wood,  which  was  burning  unconfined  on  the  centre  of  the 
floor — a  room  of  which  the  natural  illumination  came  only 


THE  KHAN  OFFERS  HIS  TREE. 


145 


from  a  small  hole  in  the  roof,  through  which  some  of  the 
smoke  was  finding  exit,  and  the  door-way,  which  was  as  open 
to  the  mules  or  dogs  in  the  yard  as  to  ourselves.  After  ma¬ 
ture  deliberation,  we  preferred  to  encamp  in  the  open  air. 

At  the  gate  of  this  wretched  chapar-khanah  we  met  the 
khan,  who  pointed  to  a  solitary  tree,  in  the  shade  of  which 
he  had  already  spread  his  carpets.  He  offered  us  his  tree  ” 
with  ceremonious  courtesy,  if  we  preferred  to  pass  the  night 
beneath  its  branches ;  but  we  chose  a  place  under  the  wall  of 
the  post-house,  from  which  we  could  see  across  the  valley. 
We  sent  Ali,  a  lanky  lad  whom  we  had  engaged  upon  the 
road,  to  the  river  to  cut  some  of  the  tall  green  rushes,  with 
which  we  strewed  the  ground  before  we  laid  down  our  car¬ 
pets.  The  melancholy  Houssein  built  a  fire-place  of  stones 
from  a  ruined  wall  with  ail  the  skill  of  a  Count  Rumford ;  we 
had  dined  before  the  light  of  day  departed,  and  presently 
our  servants  appeared  bringing  every  article  of  our  baggage, 
which  they  placed  upon  our  encampment.  In  vain  I  tried  to 
make  them  understand  that  these  things  would  be  safer  with 
them  inside  the  walls ;  they  protested,  for  a  reason  I  have 
never  yet  discovered,  that  the  baggage  would  be  more  secure 
at  our  side. 

We  were  soon  left  alone  with  the  starry  night,  one  lying 
in  a  well-made  bed,  and  one  rolled  in  a  rug  on  the  carpets. 
There  were  three  fires  burning  in  the  valley,  two  marking  the 
resting-place  of  long  strings  of  camels  laden  with  goods  for 
Teheran,  and  the  third  that  of  our  muleteers,  one  of  whom 
disturbed  our  first  attempt  to  sleep  with  a  caution  against 
wandering  thieves.  This  made  us  regard  with  increased  sus¬ 
picion  the  motions  of  two  men,  who  half  an  hour  afterward 
glided  noiselessly,  as  all  Persians  walk,  round  the  wall  of  the 
chapar-khanah,  and  stood  talking  together  near  to  Qur  solitary 
resting-place. 

The  night  was  beautiful ;  not  a  cloud  nor  the  slightest  mist 

7 


14G 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


obscured  the  stars,  or  concealed  any  part  of  the  hard,  jagged 
outline  of  the  mountains,  from  behind  which  the  moon,  a  little 
less  than  full,  rose  about  nine  o’clock,  throwing  a  flood  of  sil¬ 
very  light  upon  the  two  men,  whose  position,  one  on  each  side 
of  us,  about  thirty  yards  distant,  gave  us  uneasiness,  and  pre¬ 
vented  sleep.  At  last  they  lay  down  upon  the  ground,  intend¬ 
ing,  as  it  seemed  very  possible,  to  wait  until  we  fell  asleep  be¬ 
fore  they  approached  our  baggage.  We  agreed  to  watch 
these  disquieting  visitors  in  spells  of  two  hours  each ;  but  I 
had  scarcely  entered  upon  the  second  watch  at  half  an  hour 
after  midnight,  when  our  chief  servant  apjDeared  and  suggest¬ 
ed  that,  as  the  next  day’s  journey  included  the  very  severe 
work  of  crossing  the  Elburz  Mountains  by  the  Kharzan  Pass, 
it  would  be  well  for  the  horses  and  ourselves,  if  we  were  will¬ 
ing,  to  start  at  once,  so  as  to  get  to  the  top  before  sunrise. 
We  were  soon  in  our  saddles,  when  it  turned  out  that  one  of 
the  suspected  thieves,  who  lay  like  a  log  near  us,  was  none 
other  than  the  landlord  of  the  miserable  place  in  which  wo 
had  refused  to  lodge.  He  had  come  out  to  guard  us  during 
the  night:  and,  had  we  but  knovm  who  he  was,  we  need  not 
have  been  sleepless. 

“  The  bells !”  I  said,  with  something  of  the  horror  which 
Mr.  Irving  expresses  in  his  painful  representation  of  Mathias, 
when  I  heard  the  too  Avell-known  clangor  of  our  baggage- 
mule.  It  was  weird  work,  fording  the  river,  and  pushing  our 
way  through  the  tall  rushes  of  the  valley,  in  the  morning 
moonlight;  but  when  we  saw  the  terrible  steeps  up  which  the 
mules  and  horses  had  to  climb,  we  were  very  glad  we  had  not 
slept  till  sunrise.  For  hours  we  mounted,  until  we  had  gained 
an  elevation  of  about  seven  thousand  feet.  The  air  was  keen 
and  cold,  the  stony  path  narrow,  and  in  places  dangerous. 
Just  at  the  worst  part  of  the  ascent,  an  hour  before  day¬ 
break,  we  heard  the  sound  of  other  bells,  and  in  the  moonlight 
saw  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  loaded  camels  coming  down  the 


CAMELS  m  THE  PATH. 


147 


pass.  There  were,  in  all,  nearly  a  hundred  divided  into  strings 
of  about  twenty,  fastened  to  a  rope,  which  passed  from  the 
nose  of  one  to  the  nose  of  another.  To  have  met  the  camels 
in  the  narrow  path  would  be  perilous,  and  we  stood  aside,  on 
the  widest  ledge  at  hand,  to  let  them  pass.  But  they  moved 
very  slowly ;  and  meanwhile  mules,  horses,  and  camels  en 
route  for  Teheran  collected  behind  us,  and  some  of  the  more 
unruly  mules  forced  their  loads  among  us,  making  great  con¬ 
fusion.  Such  moments  would  be  unbearable  if  one  thouo-ht 
of  nothing  but  the  possible  danger  of  the  position.  But  there 
is  so  much  kicking  and  cuffing,  and  active  work  of  self-pro¬ 
tection  to  be  done,  one's  legs  are  so  exposed  to  injury,  and 
form  such  an  engrossing  embarrassment,  that  one  has  no  time 
to  think  of  the  precipice,  and  of  the  death  which  a  sudden 
push  from  a  stumbling  mule  or  camel  might,  or  rather  must, 
cause. 


148 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  X. 

How  Hills  are  Made.  — Kharzan.  — Mazara.  —  A  Persian  Village.  — John 
Milton  and  Casbeen.— The  Plain  of  Kasveen.— The  Mirage.— Gardens  of 
Kasveen.— Dervishes.— Decay  of  Kasveen.— A  Persian  Town.— Women 
of  Kasveen.— Persian  Costumes.— “Allahu  Akbar.”— Mosque  of  Kasveen. 
— Telegram  from  Teheran. — Visit  to  the  Khan. — His  Dove  Affairs. 
Lost  in  Kasveen. — Abdulabad. — An  Alarm  and  an  Arrival. — “Gosro- 
zink.” — Native  Plows. — On  to  Karij. — Dodged  in  the  Shah’s  Palace. 
The  Imperial  Saloon. — An  Imperial  Bedroom. — Approach  to  Teheran. 
Population  of  the  Capital.— The  Kasveen  Gate.— Mud  Houses  and  Walls. 
—The  Imperial  Theatre.— Entrance  to  the  “Arg.”— Neglect  of  Public 
Works.— British  Legation.— Mirza  Houssein  Khan.— Teheran  Bazaar.— 
Caravanserai  Ameer. 

They  say  in  the  Herzegovina  that  when  the  Creator  had 
made  the  world  he  passed  over  it  strewing  the  smooth  sur¬ 
face  with  mountains  and  hills,  but  that  over  that  country  he 
let  fall  a  great  part  of  his  burden.  In  this  way  they  account 
for  its  peculiarly  unlevel  surface.  And  as  the  rising  sun 
glowed  upon  the  summits  of  the  lower  mountains  of  the  El¬ 
burz  chain,  upon  which  we  looked  down  shortly  after  our  en¬ 
counter  with  the  camels,  the  whole  land  seemed  to  be  covered 
with  hill-tops.  The  khan  had  ridden  on  to  Kharzan  to  a  car¬ 
avanserai  near  the  end  of  the  pass^  and  was  standing  in  the 
door-way  when  we  rode  up,  shivering  with  cold.  He  pointed 
cheerfully  to  his  servant,  one  Syed  Ali,  who  was  blowing  the 
charcoal  in  his  master’s  samovar  to  a  white  heat.  Our  serv¬ 
ants  were  provided  with  cold  fowl,  boiled  eggs,  bread,  and 
grapes  and  wine.  We  had  a  pleasant  bivouac  in  this  mount¬ 
ain  station,  and  soon  forgot  the  sleepless  night  at  Parchenar. 
Two  hours  afterward,  we  had  descended  about  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  feet,  and  arrived  at  the  village  of  Mazara.  The  post- 


MAZARA. 


149 


house,  like  the  village,  was  built  of  mud.  We  mounted  by  a 
ladder,  with  rungs  terribly  wide  apart,  on  to  the  flat  roof  of 
the  ground -floor,  and  there  found  a  little  room  with  two 
wooden  doors,  which  also  served  as  windows.  Inside,  there 
lay  our  bright  carpets,  and  upon  them  a  tray  covered  with 
pomegranates,  a  present  from  the  khan,  which  we  acknowl¬ 
edged  with  the  gift  of  a  melon.  The  sun  was  intensely  hot, 
and  the  advantages  of  mud  construction  in  point  of  coolness 
were  very  perceptible.  We  all  slept  through  the  middle 
hours  of  the  day;  and  toward  evening,  when  I  came  out  upon 
the  roof,  activity  had  been  resumed.  I  had  to  avoid  stepping 
down  the  chimneys,  which,  however,  were  smoking  remind- 
fully  and  pungently.  Below  in  the  yard  there  were  dancers 
keeping  slow  time  to  a  monotonous  tom-tom.  I  fancy  they 
had  an  eye  to  the  remains  of  our  dinner,  which  they  after¬ 
ward  enjoyed.  The  neighboring  roofs  were  for  the  most 
part  covered  with  a  layer  of  horse  and  cow  dung,  spread  out 
to  dry.  When  dried,  it  is  mixed  with  clay,  and  forms  the 
fuel  of  the  village.  On  some  roofs  the  manufacture  of  desic¬ 
cated  dung  and  clay  was  being  carried  on.  Close  by  the  vil¬ 
lage  a  piece  of  ground  had  been  trodden  hard  by  use  as*  a 
threshing: -floor.  There  were  two  small  bullocks  and  two 
large  men  at  work  in  this  way.  The  beasts  were  dragging 
round  and  round,  over  the  broken  straw,  a  wooden  sledge,  in 
which  were  set  two  circular  harrows,  also  of  wood,  which 
revolved  simply  by  being  drawn  over  the  straw.  They  had 
trodden  and  dragged  until  none  of  the  straw  was  more  than 
two  inches  in  length.  The  oxen  and  the  men  were  knee-deep 
in  it,  and  beneath  the  broken  straw  lay  the  golden  grain.  The 
tilled  land  surrounding  the  village  looked  but  a  patch  upon 
the  vast  plain  stretched  out  before  us.  The  cultivated  soil 
was  naturally  no  better  than  much  of  that  which  was  waste, 
but  it  was  watered,  and  irrigation  brings  forth  rich  crops  of 
corn  and  fruit. 


150 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAK. 


Mazara,  lying  under  the  Elburz  Mountains,  uiDon  the  edge 
of  a  sharp  slope,  is  a  fair  specimen  of  a  Persian  village.  The 
earth  is  brown,  the  houses  are  brown,  and  crumblins:  into  the 
dust  of  the  plain,  from  the  mud  of  which  they  have  been 
made.  If  human  beings  were  wont  to  burrow  in  the  earth, 
their  habitations  would,  I  suppose,  look  from  a  distance  very 
much  like  the  mud-built  villages  of  Persia.  There  is  no  street, 
no  order  in  the  arrangement  of  the  huts,  no  provision  what¬ 
ever  for  drainage.  The  houses  are  set  together  anyhow; 
sometimes  with  space  enough  between  for  a  loaded  mule  to 
pass,  but  rarely  more,  though  the  plain  is  so  vast  and  barren. 
The  miserable  kennel  of  dried  mud  in  which  we  rested  was 
the  only  elevation,  and  its  raised  position  was  the  cause  of 
one  of  us  having  a  fall  which  might  have  had  a  very  serious 
result.  The  roof  outside  our  sleeping-place  was  very  infirm, 
and  iny  shadow  concealed  a  hole  jagged  with  broken  sticks 
which  lay  beneath  the  clay.  In  the  early  morning,  when  we 
were  preparing  to  start,  my  wife  stepped  through  this  hole, 
and  to  a  considerable  extent  disappeared.  It  was  most  fort¬ 
unate  that  she  was  not  badly  hurt. 

Our  path  lay  directly  to  Kasveen,  or  Casbeen,  formerly  one 
of  the  chief  towns  of  Persia,  a  city  which  was  famous  in  Mil¬ 
ton’s  day,  for  the  author  of  Paradise  Lost  ”  wrote— 

‘‘  Or  Bactrian  Sophi,  from  the  horns 
Of  Turkish  crescent,  leaves  all  waste  bevond 
The  realm  of  Aladule,  in  his  retreat 
To  Tauris  or  Casbeen.” 

•  We  rode  to  Casbeen,  or  Kasveen,  over  the  nearly  flat  plain 
which  stretches  far  beyond  Teheran,  and  of  which  the  aver¬ 
age  level  is  nearly  four  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  in¬ 
closed  by  mountains  and  hills,  and  in  some  places  is  not  more 
than  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  wide.  From  Mazara  to  Kasveen 
the  unbroken  soil  appears  to  be  naturally  fertile,  but  it  is 
waste  for  want  of  water,  which  might  so  easily  be  stored  in 


THE  MIRAGE. 


151 


the  hills.  Where  water  is  artificially  provided,  the  method  is 
very  curious.  From  a  spring  found  by  digging  upon  raised 
ground,  a  tunnel  is  made  until  the  surface  is  reached,  the 
course  of  the  tunnel  being  marked  by  shafts  (“  k’nats  ”  these 
holes  are  called),  the  openings  of  which  upon  the  plain  are 
embanked  with  the  earth  removed  by  the  excavation. 

The  illusion  of  the  mirage,  which  is  nowhere  more  often 
seen  than  in  Persia,  is  well  known.  The  mist  of  the  morn¬ 
ing,  hovering  upon  the  plain,  assumes  the  appearance  of  wa¬ 
ter.  Near  Kasveen,  the  mirage  was  very  remarkable.  The 
cattle  in  the  distance  seemed  to  be  drinking  upon  the  edge  of 
still  waters,  and  the  posts  of  the  Indo-European  Telegraph  to 
be  standing  in  a  shallow  lagoon.  The  deception  is  as  “  old 
as  the  hills.”  It  has  been  observed  in  all  ages.  In  one  of  the 
odes  of  Hafiz,  the  great  poet  of  Persia,  who  has  been  dead 
nearly  five  hundred  years,  it  is  said  of  this  natural  illusion, 

“  The  fountain-head  is  far  off  in  the  desolate  wilderness  ; 

Beware,  lest  the  demon  deceive  thee  with  the  mirage.” 

For  hours  we  seemed  to  be  riding  toward  water  which  we 
knew  did  not  exist.  The  mirage  floated  deceptively  before 
us,  and  when  at  last  it  cleared  off,  there  was  another  illusion. 
The  trees  in  the  gardens  of  Kasveen,  which  were  yet  a  dozen 
miles  distant,  seemed  to  be  scarcely  more  than  three  or  four 
miles  from  us. 

At  last  we  reached  these  gardens,  which  are  for  the  most 
part  vineyards ;  and  in  the  way  of  eating  there  can  be  few 
greater  pleasures  than  to  devour  the  grapes  of  Kasveen  on 
a  hot  day  as  one  would  currants  in  England.  '  They  are  the 
small  stoneless  grapes,  which,  when  dried,  are  sold  as  Sul¬ 
tana  ”  raisins.  But  Kasveen  is  a  half-ruined,  famine-stricken 
dust-heap.  During  the  famine  of  1870-71  the  poor  of  Kas¬ 
veen  died  by  hundreds.  As  we  rode  through  the  bazaar,  on 
our  way  to  the  post-house,  we  saw  what  it  might  cost  to  have 


152 


THKOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


a  blind  horse  in  Persia.  Every  now  and  then  there  was  a 
deep  square  hole,  open  and  unguarded,  in  the  centre  of  the 
street,  for  cleansing  the  water- course  which  runs  beneath. 
INTear  the  entrance  to  the  mud- built  chapar-khanah,  there 
were  two  dervishes  groveling  in  the  dust  and  screaming  for 
alms.  One,  a  strongly  built  man,  nearly  naked,  was  hoarse 
and  half  stupefied  with  his  shouts,  which,  though  few  re¬ 
garded,  none  mocked  or  laughed  at.  The  other,  an  old  man, 
was  more  methodical.  In  a  fanatical  burst,  he  now  and  then 
threw  out  “Ali!  Ali!”  nothing  more  being  needed,  espe¬ 
cially  in  Ramadan,  to  show  his  devotion  to  Ali,  the  great  son- 
in-law  of  Mohammed.  The  dervishes  of  Persia  are  a  privi¬ 
leged  institution.  They  are  not  a  caste,  for  I  believe  any 
one  is  free  to  take  up  the  profession  of  religious  mendicancy 
to  which  they  seem  devoted.  The  madder  their  actions,  the 
more  respect  they  appear  to  gain.  Nobody  ‘‘chaffs”  a  der¬ 
vish,  and  in  none  do  his  eccentricities  provoke  ridicule. 

When,  after  passing  through  many  by-paths  and  crooked 
ways,  we  reached  the  chapar-khanah,  our  mules  rushed  to  the 
mangers,  and  we  mounted  the  roof  of  the  stables  by  steps,  of 
which  some  were  nearly  two  feet  high,  to  the  bala-khanah. 
Kasveen  is  still  regarded  as  a  town  of  much  importance, 
where  a  traveler  might  expect  to  find  accommodation  for 
man  and  beast;  yet  our  servants  had  to  build  a  stove  of 
bricks  on  the  roof  for  cooking  our  dinner,  Avhich  consisted 
of  chicken -broth,  followed  by  the  stewed  chicken,  with  rice 
and  sweetmeats.  Kasveen  suffered  horribly  in  the  recent 
famine,  and  this  may  account  for  some  of  the  ruin  which  sur¬ 
rounded  us.  But  the  decay  of  Kasveen  is  of  long  standing, 
and  will  not,  apparently,  be  arrested  by  the  absence  of  famine. 
There  are  miles  and  miles  of  ruined  mud-walls  in  and  about 
the  town.  At  all  times,  and  under  any  circumstances,  a  Per¬ 
sian  town  has  a  desolate  appearance.  Even  in  a  town  as 
large  as  Kasveen,  with  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  inhabitants. 


WOMEN^  OF  KASVEE]^. 


153 


there  are  not  a  dozen  houses  with  a  second  story,  and  not  a 
single  private  house  with  a  window  opening  upon  the  street. 
In  Turkey,  the  windows  of  the  harem — ^the  women’s  part  of 
the  house — are,  it  is  true,  jealously  latticed,  and  the  lattice  has 
sometimes  a  pretty  appearance  from  the  street;  but  one  can 
not  see  an  inch  into  the  “  anderoon,”  or  harem,  of  a  Persian 
house.  The  streets,  except  in  the  bazaars,  are  bounded  by 
mud -walls,  with  no  opening  or  variation  except  the  door, 
which  is  very  rarely  unfastened. 

We  were  standing  on  the  roof  of  the  chapar-khanah,  look¬ 
ing  down  into  the  dusty  street,  when  a  number  of  women  re¬ 
turning  from  a  mosque  passed  beneath,  chattering  and  laugh¬ 
ing.  They  lifted  their  heads  to  look  at  us,  but  not  an  eye 
was  visible ;  and  though  they  were  probably  only  neighbors, 
and  certainly  belonged  to  different  houses  and  families,  there 
was  as  precise  similarity  in  their  coloring — the  indigo  chud- 
der  and  trousers  and  the  white  veil — as  if  they  had  worn  the 
uniform  of  one  regiment.  The  indoor  costume  of  Persian 
women  of  the  higher  class  appears  indelicate  to  Europeans. 
The  chudder  and  trousers  are  the  invariable  walking  cos¬ 
tume.  Indoors  the  dress  of  a  Persian  lady  is  more  like  that 
of  a  ballet -girl,  except  that  the  Persian  lady’s  legs  are  not 
covered,  and  that  her  bodice  makes  even  less  pretension  to 
be  a  covering  than  that  of  a  danseuse  of  these  decolletees 
days.  In  the  anderoon s  of  Persian  royalty,  my  wife  was  re¬ 
ceived  by  princesses  thus  attired,  or  rather  unattired,  the 
high  fashion  being  for  the  short  skirts  to  stand  out  in  the 
most  approved  manner  of  the  ballet. 

I  have  often  thought  it  would  make  the  canal  scenes  of 
Venice  far  more  beautiful  if  the  gondolas  were  not  so  invari¬ 
ably  painted  with  sombre  black,  a  survival,  I  believe,  of  the 
stern  equality  of  the  Republican  epoch.  And  to  see  the  Per¬ 
sian  women  stumbling  slipshod  or  riding  over  the  miserable 
roads,  all  disguised  in  the  same  dismal  covering — a  dress  far 


154 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


more  ugly  than  was  ever  worn  by  nun  or  Sister  of  Mercy — 
is  to  pity  the  wearers  of  a  costume  which  custom  and  the 
rule  of  the  Koran  have  made  acceptable.  In  Turkey,  again, 
the  women  are  veiled,  but  their  dress  is  of  many  colors ;  in 
Persia,  no  part  of  their  person,  not  an  eye,  is  visible,  and  their 
outdoor  costume  has  this  painful  and  sombre  uniformity. 

At  sunset,  as  usual,  the  voices  of  the  moollahs  chanting 
the  “Allahu  Akbar”  (God  is  great)  sounded  from  all  quar¬ 
ters  of  the  town  of  Kasveen;  highest  of  all, .from  a  little 
building  something  like  a  Swiss  chalet  placed  over  the  arch¬ 
way  of  the  court-yard  of  the  principal  mosque.  Ignorant  of 
the  fact  that  Europeans  never  visit  the  Persian  mosques,  and 
with  no  knowledge  of  the  great  danger  of  the  excursion,  we 
set  out  to  see  this  royal  mosque,  the  only  interesting  build¬ 
ing  in  Kasveen.  We  passed  through  a  part  of  the  bazaar, 
where,  as  in  all  towns  in  Persia,  men  may  be  seen  ginning 
cotton  with  a  bow,  ignorant  of  the  European  inventions,  and 
where  others  were  laboriously  embossing  writing-paper  by 
rubbing  the  rough  sheet  with  polished  wood.  Our  visit  to 
the  mosque  attracted  much  attention,  but  we  met  with  no 
opposition.  We  were  followed  by  a  crowd ;  but  this  was  not 
unusual,  and  no  one  made  any  remonstrance.  The  building 
has  no  architectural  merit,  and  is  curious  only  for  the  pleas¬ 
ing  effect  produced  with  glazed  bricks  of  different  colors. 
Like  most  of  the  Persian  mosques,  this  praying-place  is  en¬ 
tirely  open.  The  high,  pointed  arch  of  the  centre,  beneath 
which  is  the  chief  or  grand  pavilion,  has  a  beading  of  bright 
blue.  There  are  panels  set  with  highly  glazed  tiles;  the 
ground  of  primrose  yellow,  on  which  there  are  flowers  in  red 
and  blue.  The  effect  is  very  pleasing,  and  might  be  much 
more  so  with  better  workmanship  and  a  finer  style  of  con¬ 
struction. 

At  Kasveen,  there  is  a  station  of  the  Indo-European  Tele¬ 
graph  Company;  and,  on  our  return  to  the  post-house,  we 


VISIT  TO  -  THE  -KHAN. 


155 


found  the  local  inspector,  an  Italian,  with  a  telegram  in  his 
hand  an  invitation  to  us  from  the  English  minister  in  Tehe¬ 
ran  to  make  the  Legation  our  home  during  our  stay  in  the 
capital. 

I  had  forwarded  to  Mr.  Thomson  a  letter  of  introduction, 
of  which  this  telegram  contained  an  acknowledgment.  We 
should  gladly  have  accepted  the  minister’s  very  kind  offer 
of  hospitality,  had  we  remained  under  the  impression,  which 
we  had  on  leaving  England,  that  it  was  a  matter  of  necessity; 
that  there  was  no  other  place  in  which  we  could  find  suitable 
lodging.  But  we  had  learned  at  Baku  from  Count  Thun, 
the  brother-in-law  of  the  Austrian  envoy,  and  at  Resht  from 
Mr.  Churchill,  that  there  was  a  hotel  in  Teheran,  kept  by  a 
Frenchman  who  had  been  ^^chef”  to  the  Shah:  and,  hearino; 
this,  we  did  not  feel  disposed  to  intrude  upon  the  British 
minister.  We  at  once  telegraphed  our  thanks  to  Mr.  Thom¬ 
son  from  Kasveen,  and  expressed  our  intention  of  staying  at 
M.  Prevot’s  hotel. 

The  khan,  our  faithful  traveling  companion,  had  taken  up 
his  quarters  at  the  caravanserai,  where  I  found  him  lodged 
after  the  manner  of  his  country.  About  the  entrance,  on  the 
brick  ledges  of  the  wide  gate-way,  muleteers  lay  sleeping  in 
every  imaginable  posture;  and  inside,  the  same  might  be  said 
of  their  mules,  among  which  I  recognized  our  own  animals. 
Surrounding  this  yard  \vas  the  usual  brick  parapet,  about 
four  feet  high  and  as  many  broad,  by  which  the  human  in¬ 
habitants  of  the  caravanserai  reached  their  apartments,  which 
■were  simply  deep  niches,  closed  on  the  outside  with  paneled 
Avood,  in  which  there  was  a  door,  and  a  sliding  shutter  for 
a  AvindoAV.  The  khan,  Avith  his  shutter  raised  and  his  door 
open,  sat  cross-legged  on  his  traveling  carpet  at  the  mouth 
of  his  arch,  of  Avhich  both  floor  and  ceiling  Avere  of  plain, 
unconcealed  brick-Avork.  It  Av^as  very  curious  to  see  a  man 
Avhose  manners  evinced  in  some  respects  great  refinement. 


156 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


lodged,  with  ajjparently  perfect  contentment,  in  a  dark  arch 
looking  upon  a  stable -yard.  Beside  him  lay  three  or  four 
melons,  and  far  in  the  background  two  live  fowls,  wdth  their 
leo’s  tied  together :  this  was  his  larder. 

The  ritual  or  etiquette  which  regulates,  in  Persia,  the  mak¬ 
ing,  and  the  exchange,  and  the  duration  of  visits,  as  well  as 
of  presents,  is  very  severe.  The  anxiety  of  the  khan  that  I 
should  pay  him  a  visit  in  the  caravanserai  was  quite  touch¬ 
ing.  He  was  evidently  fearful  that  his  reputation  would  suf¬ 
fer  in  the  eyes  of  the  Kasveen  people,  if,  after  we  had  trav¬ 
eled  together  to  the  town,  and  had  been  accompanied  by  him 
to  the  chapar-khanah,  I  allowed  the  day  of  arrival  to  pass 
without  making  personal  inquiries  concerning  his  health  and 
comfort.  And  I  was  glad  to  please  him  in  so  small  a  matter, 
for  he  had  been  untiring  in  his  attentions  to  us  upon  the 
road.  While  I  sat  with  the  khan  upon  his  carpet  in  the  Kas- 
veeii  caravanserai,  he  told  me  that  he  had  a  princess  for  a 
wife  in  Teheran.  He  had  once,  he  said,  hoped  to  have  been 
married  to  an  Englishwoman.  At  the  Legation  in  London 
there  was,  he  went  on  to  tell  me,  a  servant-girl,  Emily,” 
whom  he  wished  to  marry.  She  was  “  very  beauty,”  “  very 
beauty,”  and  he  confessed  to  having  made  her  an  offer;  but 
it  appeared,  from  the  sequel  of  this  story  of  unrequited  affec¬ 
tion,  that  Emily,”  on  learning  that  in  Persia  men  had  more 
than  one  wife,  and  that  women  never  walked  in  the  streets 
with  their  faces  exposed  to  view,  would  not  listen  to  the 
khan’s  proposals. 

The  great  Mohammedan  fast  is  not  the  best  time  for  trav¬ 
eling.  Servants  and  muleteers  can  obtain  priestly  permission 
to  eat  while  upon  the  journey ;  but  not  a  few  of  them  are  fa¬ 
natics,  and  prefer  to  keep  the  fast.  The  consequence  is  that 
they  are  ill-tempered  and  languid  all  day,  ravenous  toward 
evening ;  and  the  traveler  may  as  well  whistle  to  the  wind  as 
endeavor  to  obtain  their  attention  at  the  moment  when,  at 


ABDULABAD. 


157 


sunset,  feeding  is  lawful.  Till  sunrise,  their  license  is  un¬ 
checked  ;  they  eat,  drink,  smoke,  and,  finally,  are  found  asleep 
when  their  employer  wishes  to  be  on  the  road.  It  was  so  in 
the  morning  upon  which  we  quitted  Kasveen,  and,  leaving  the 
baggage  to  be  packed  by  the  sleepy  gholams  and  servants,  we 
set  off  quite  alone  two  hours  before  sunrise,  thinking  that  the 
high  path  to  Teheran  would  be  perfectly  clear.  But  we  were 
soon  lost  among  the  ruins  of  Kasveen,  with  no  living  thing 
at  hand  except  one  or  two  howling  dogs,  which  stalked 
mournfully  over  the  ruined  mud-walls  and  broken  archways 
of  the  decayed  and  decaying  town.  Soon,  however,  the  ris¬ 
ing  sun  revealed  the  posts  of  the  Teheran  telegraph,  and  these 
led  us  to  the  road,  where  in  a  short  time  we  heard  the  jin¬ 
gling  bells  of  our  baggage  -  train.  We  met  with  no  shade 
w^hatever  during  the  whole  day’s  ride  until  we  arrived  at  the 
solitary  post-house  of  Abdulabad  ;  and  we  had  not  been  there 
an  hour  before  one  of  our  servants  rushed  into  the  room,  ex¬ 
claiming,  “  Inglees  Sahib!  Teheran!”  He  was  quickly  fol¬ 
lowed  by  an  Englishman,  who  reminded  me  at  once  of  the 
photograph  of  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley.  And  this  was  no  wonder ; 
he  was  like  Mr.  Stanley  in  face  ;  the  same  bold,  active  expres¬ 
sion  ;  and  his  dress  was  identical :  pith  helmet,  short  tunic, 
leather  belt,  garnished  with  pistol  and  pouch,  and  high  rid¬ 
ing-boots.  His  Mr,  Arnold,  I  believe  ?”  w^as  not  needed  to 
suggest  the  resemblance.  He  had  brought  a  letter  from  the 
British  minister  at  Teheran,  repeating  in  writing  the  very 
kind  invitation  which  we  had  received  the  day  before  by  tele¬ 
graph  at  Kasveen,  and  cautioning  us  to  avoid  exposure  to  the 
sun,  which  “  even  at  this  time  of  year,”  Mr.  Thomson  wrote, 
is  dangerous.” 

We  left  Abdulabad  three  hours  before  day-break,  in  order 
to  finish  our  journey  before  the  great  heat  of  the  afternoon. 
There  was  no  moon ;  it  was  cold,  and  very  dark.  Ali  was 
acting  as  guide,  with  his  hand  upon  the  bridle  of  my  wife’s 


158 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN’. 


horse,  which  at  every  brook  or  water-course  he  abandoned, 
leaving  the  rider  to  splash  into  unknown  darkness  and  depths, 
while  he  sought  a  crossing  which  could  be  accomplished  dry- 
shod.  But  All  misled  us,  and  it  was  some  time  before  the 
caravan  was  collected  upon  the  right  track.  We  had,  how¬ 
ever,  not  gone  far,  after  discovering  this  error,  before  there 
was  another  alarm.  The  khan,  my  wife,  and  I  were  riding  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  in  advance  of  the  servants  and  baggage, 
when  we  heard  loud  cries  of  ‘‘Houssein  !”  ‘^Houssein  !”  and 
saw  a  tramp  who  had,  for  his  own  convenience,  attached  him¬ 
self  to  our  caravan,  running  toward  us,  screaming,  as  Persians 
do  whenever  they  are  excited.  I  turned  and  galloped  back 
in  the  darkness,  expecting  at  least  to  find  Houssein  in  the 
hands  of  robbers.  He  was  only  bruised  by  a  tumble  from 
his  saddle,  in  which  he  had  fallen  asleep. 

The  way  from  Kasveen  to  Teheran  is  very  uninteresting ; 
the  road  is  “  where  you  please,”  for  the  stony  plain  belongs 
almost  entirely  to  the  rider.  There  is  little  attempt  at  culti¬ 
vation.  N^ow  and  then  there  is  a  parallelogram  surrounded 
by  a  mud- wall  twelve  feet  high,  the  rude  fortification  of  a  vil¬ 
lage,  such  as  we  rested  in  the  night  after  leaving  Abdulabad. 
It  was  called  by  a  name  which  sounded  like  Gosrozink;  and 
after  riding  through  a  hole  in  the  mud  fortification,  and  be¬ 
tween  two  ranges  of  miserable  huts,  which  served  as  a  bazaar, 
we  arrived  at  the  place  wherein  it  was  proposed  we  should 
sleep.  The  khan  had  gone  on  before,  and,  when  we  arrived, 
he  was  sitting  on  the  wide  ledge  of  the  bramble-roofed  gate¬ 
way,  through  which  every  mule  entering  the  yard  must  pass. 
He  was  scooping  a  water-melon  with  the  utmost  composure 
and  contentment,  while  a  servant,  who  had  arrived  before  us, 
emerged,  broom  in  hand,  from  a  dark  hole  opposite — a  cave 
constructed  of  mud  cement,  with  no  other  light  but  that  from 
a  small  door  opening  beneath  the  gate-way.  Houssein  seem¬ 
ed  conscious  that  it  would  be  pronounced  an  intolerable  lodg- 


NATIVE  PLOWS. 


159 


ing ;  and  when  I  pointed,  in  preference,  to  one  house  in  the 
village  which  had  a  room  raised  upon  the  roof  of  the  ground- 
floor,  he  at  once  darted  off,  and,  to  my  horror,  I  saw  him 
flinging  out  the  furniture,  which  consisted  of  bundles  of  rags 
and  a  few  pots  of  earthenware,  before,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  he 
had  consulted  the  wishes  of  the  proprietor.  But  it  soon  ap¬ 
peared  that  he  was  not  wrong  in  taking  this  for  granted. 
The  lady  of  the  house  hurried  up  the  ladder  which  led  to  the 
apartment  I  coveted,  and  assisted  in  the  removal  and  sweep¬ 
ing.  Then  I  saw  that  the  room  had  no  door  ;  but  this  it  was 
not  diflicult  to  supply  with  a  rug. 

The  place  was  a  fine  observatory  for  watching  the  doings 
of  Gosrozink.  Across  the  squalor  of  the  undrained  village, 
over  the  inclosing  wall,  w'hich  was  literally  and  purely  built 
of  mud,  the  view  of  the  mountains  was  delightful ;  and  as  the 
rnoollah  of  the  village  loudly  proclaimed  the  hour  of  prayer, 
numbers  of  the  people  knelt  upon  their  roofs,  and  made  their 
evening  prostrations  and  prayers  in  the  direction  of  Mecca. 
In  the  zigzag  ways  of  the  village  were  stored  those  wretched 
primeval  plows  'which,  from  the  Adriatic  Sea  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  are  the  bane  of  agriculture.  A  beam  of  wood  three 
or  four  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  prong  of  wood  (not  always 
tij^ped  with  iron)  fixed  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees — -that 
is  the  plow  wdth  which  the  rich  lands  of  Greece,  of  Turkey, 
of  Persia,  and  eastward  to  the  ocean,  are  tilled.  The  plow  of 
the  time  of  Herodotus  and  of  Constantine  was  in  shape  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  as  that  which  scratches  the  soil  of  these  coun¬ 
tries  to-day.  Who  would  venture  to  say  what  might  be  the 
increase  in  the  production  of  corn,  if  the  light  iron  plows  of 
English  manufacture  were  to  pass  into  general  use  through¬ 
out  Eastern  Europe  and  in  Asia? 

It  is  terribly  wearisome  to  ride  over  a  plain  so  flat  that,  in 
the  morning,  one  can  see  the  goal  of  the  evening — a  ride  in 
which  nine  hours  of  traveling  bring  no  material  change  of 


160 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


landscape.  When  the  sun  rose,  shortly  after  we  left  Gosro- 
zink,  we  could  see  almost  the  lowest  rock  of  the  spur  of  the 
Elburz  Mountains,  under  which  lay  a  palace  of  the  Shah, 
where  the  khan  had  promised  us  we  should,  through  his  in¬ 
fluence,  obtain  good  lodging  for  the  last  night  of  our  long 
journey.  We  reached  the  palace  early  in  the  afternoon, 
scarcely  less  tired  than  our  horses  with  the  heat  and  dust. 
It  is  one  of  half  a  dozen  palaces  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tehe¬ 
ran,  and  was  last  occupied  by  the  Shah  when  his  majesty  re¬ 
turned  from  London. 

There  are  palaces  and  palaces,  and  this  palace  of  Karij  is 
not  in  accord  with  the  English  notion  of  a  palace.  The  gate¬ 
way,  placed  in  the  mud- wall  which  surrounds  the  buildings 
and  gardens,  is  in  style  a  compound  of  a  Swiss  chalet  and  a 
Chinese  pagoda.  It  opens  into  a  large  yard,  where  we  dis¬ 
mounted.  The  khan  assisted,  and  then  offered  his  arm  in 
English  fashion,  to  the  evident  astonishment  of  the  Shah’s  do¬ 
mestics,  to  lead  the  lady  of  the  party  to  the  palace.  Through 
a  side  door  we  passed  from  the  yard  into  a  garden,  and,  be¬ 
neath  trellised  fig-trees,  walked  by  a  shady  path  to  the  main 
building.  This  was  long  and  narrow,  crossed  near  each  end 
by  two  staircases,  a  large  landing  on  the  first  floor  dividing 
the  back  and  front  stairs.  The  steps  were  painfully  steep, 
and  covered  with  blue  -  glazed  tiles,  which  were  generally 
broken. 

IN’ot  the  Shah-in-Shah,*^  or  any  other  f)otentate,  could  main¬ 
tain  a  dignified  deportment  while  climbing  up  such  steps  as 
those  of  any  one  of  his  palaces.  With  few  exceptions,  an 
easy  staircase  seems  to  be  one  of  the  latest  triumphs  of  civili¬ 
zation.  The  imperial  steps  in  the  Roman  Coliseum  are  so 


*  This  title,  “  Sliah-in-Shah  ”  (King  of  Kings),  is  said  to  have  been  origi¬ 
nally,  assumed  by  the  Persian  monarchs  in  right  of  their  suzerainty  over  four 
kings — those  of  Afghanistan,  Georgia,  Kurdistan,  and  Arabistan. 


THE  IMPERIAL  SALOON. 


161 


high  that  the  CoBsars  must  have  looked  like  bears  climbing  a 
pole  or  alpine  travelers  in  difficulty,  when  mounting  to  their 
throne  in  that  vast  amphitheatre.  We  found  the  Shah’s 
stairs  really  painful,  after  our  tiresome  ride.  On  the  landint^ 
there  were  double  doors  on  either  hand,  covered  with  arono-h. 
red  paint,  and  without  locks  or  handles.  W^e  entered  on  one 
side  the  large  saloon  of  the  palace,  the  only  apartment  which 
contained  a  single  article  of  furniture,  and  in  this  room  the 
solitary  provision  was  a  carpet,  or,  rather,  four  carpets ;  one 
large  carpet  in  the  centre,  and  thick  felts,  extending  for  about 
six  feet  from  the  wall,  on  three  sides.  At  both  ends  of  the 
room,  from  the  roof  half-way  down  the  wall,  were  paintings, 
each  containing  the  portraits,  or  supposed  portraits,  of  about 
a  dozen  Shahs,  every  monarch  having  a  square  black  beard  of 
impossible  dimensions  and  singular  uniformity.  There  was 
one  thing  in  the  saloon  besides  the  carpets — a  large,  circular 
metal  tray,  about  a  yard  in  diameter,  on  which  were  three 
large  melons,  cut  in  halves,  for  our  refreshment.  I  think 
every  half-melon  was  more  or  less  scooped  before  the  tray 
was  carried  away ;  and  we  left  the  saloon  to  look  at  our  bed¬ 
room,  which  was  a  large  oblong,  with  doors  opening  upon  the 
mud-cement  roof  of  the  under  offices,  of  which  our  servants 
had  taken  possession,  with  the  result  of  filling  the  place  with 
the  smoke  of  their  cooking  fire,  for  which  they  had  to  pur¬ 
chase  wood. 

The  light  of  the  bedroom  came  from  the  ends,  according  as 
we  raised  or  lowered  the  heavy  wooden  shutters.  There  were 
no  other  windows.  On  the  rubbishy  concrete  floor  there 
was  a  layer  of  dust,  which  rose  in  small  clouds  as  we  walked 
across  the  room.  It  was  not  without  hard  labor  that  we 
shook  offi  the  dust  of  the  Shah’s  bedroom  from  our  carpets 
the  next  morning  before  starting  for  Teheran.  This  palace 
of  Karij  possesses  a  feature  not  uncommon  in  the  residences 
of  the  Shah — a  tower  joined  to,  but  easily  shut  against  access 


162 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


from,  the  palace — a  high,  square  building,  ascended  by  flights 
of  stairs,  with  slits  for  windows,  just  large  enough  to  admit 
a  glimmer  of  light.  There  is  no  ornament  or  furniture ;  the 
tower  is  merely  a  place  of  temporary  retreat  and  security  in 
case  of  sudden  attack  or  attempted  revolution.  I  have  spoken 
of  a  ‘‘bedroom,”  but  a  Persian  palace  has,  properly  speaking, 
no  apartments  specially  devoted  to  sleeping.  The  khan,  in 
the  true  Persian  fashion,  passed  the  night  on  the  thick  Kho- 
rassan  felt  upon  the  floor  of  the  saloon. 

One  looks  in  vain  for  the  signs  of  a  great  city  on  approach¬ 
ing  the  capital  of  Persia.  The  plain  is  stony,  nearly  level, 
and  utterly  wearisome.  There  are  strings  of  camels  and 
droves  of  asses  entering  and  leaving  the  city.  Much  of  the 
daily  food,  all  the  fire- wood,  and  all  the  foreign  produce  con¬ 
sumed  in  Teheran  must  be  so  conveyed.  A  wheeled  car¬ 
riage  for  such  service  is  never  seen.  No  fine  building  pre¬ 
sents  a  remarkable  outline.  At  one  or  two  points,  the  sun’s 
rays  gleam  upon  the  vitrified  tiles  of  the  dome  of  a  mosque 
or  shrine ;  but  these  are  miserable  in  elevation.  Nobody 
knows  how  many  people  there  are  in  Teheran :  some  say  fifty 
thousand;  some  say  eighty  thousand;  but  in  other  countries 
and  climates  a  town  with  twenty  thousand  inhabitants  makes 
far  more  show.  Were  it  not  for  the  plane-trees,  one  might 
overlook  Teheran  as  one  would  a  sleeping  crocodile  on  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  The  city  is  of  the  color  and  of  the  ma¬ 
terial  of  the  plain.  It  is  a  city  of  mud,  in  an  oasis  of  plane- 
trees.  The  flat  roofs  continue  the  level  of  the  plain.  As 
one  approaches  Teheran  in  autumn,  the  eye  passes  over  the 
wretched  dwellings,  is  relieved  with  the  verdure  of  the  trees, 
and  delights  in  the  high  mountains,  of  which  the  tallest  sum¬ 
mits,  covered  with  perpetual  snow,  chill  the  evening  and  the 
early  morning  air,  even  at  that  season. 

The  area  within  the  heaps  of  earth  •which  form  the  de¬ 
fenses  of  Tehei’an  is  much  larger  than  the  citv.  For  the 

O  V 


THE  KASVEEN  GATE. 


163 


most  pavtj  there  is  no  wall,  only  an  irregular  trench,  at  the 
side  of  which  the  excavated  sand  has  been  carelessly  heaped. 
We  approached  the  Kasveen  gate  in  quite  a  cavalcade.  The 
khan’s  brother,  his  two  sons  held  by  servants  upon  white 
donkeys,  and  three  mounted  servants,  had  ridden  an  hour 
from  the  city  to  meet  him.  A  man  seated  on  the  extreme 
end  of  a  donkey  had  come  out  from  Prevot’s,  the  hotel  of 
Teheran,  having  heard  by  telegraph  of  our  probable  arrival. 
Altogether  we  formed  a  small  crowd  in  passing  the  gate, 
which,  like  all  the  entrances  to  Teheran,  reminds  one  of  Tun¬ 
bridge  ware.  The  style  of  building,  and  the  mode  of  arran¬ 
ging  the  glazed  bricks,  of  various  colors,  is  like  nothing  so 
much  as  the  surface  of  the  boxes  one  buys,  or  does  not  buy, 
at  that  pleasant  town  in  Mid-Kent. 

No  European  could  enter  the  gates  of  Teheran  for  the  first 
time  without  a  feeling  of  intense  disappointment:  the  city 
appears  so  insignificant  in  area  and  elevation.  One  sees 
nothing  but  wide,  dusty  spaces,  broken  occasionally  by  a 
mud -wall  of  precisely  the  same  color  as  the  road.  After 
riding  within  the  gates  across  country  for  about  a  mile, 
through  holes  in  the  walls  of  dusty  inclosures  which  looked 
as  if  somebody  had  at  one  time  thought  them  worth  a  mud- 
wall,  and  on  second  thoughts  had  arrived  at  an  opposite  con¬ 
clusion,  we  came  to  something  that  had  in  the  uniformity  of 
its  width  the  aspect  of  a  street ;  but,  like  all  the  other  ways 
of  Teheran,  this  was  bounded  by  apparently  interminable 
walls  of  mud,  broken  only  at  about  every  twenty  or  thirty 
yards  by  an  iron-bound  door,  the  single  sign  that  this  erec¬ 
tion  was  the  outer  wall  of  habitations.  At  last  we  arrived 
in  the  Belgravia  of  the  Persian  capital — the  place  of  highest 
fashion ;  and  there  the  only  difference  was,  that  the  twelve- 
foot  wall  was  paneled,  and  the  mud  cement  covered  with 
finer  plaster,  and  washed  over  with  blue,  upon  which  were 
scrolled  decorations  molded  in  the  same  plaster. 


164 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


The  uniformity  and  ugliness  of  some  of  our  own  streets — 
say  Gower  Street,  for  example — are  bad  enough,  but  a  brick 
wall  would  be  worse ;  and  a  brick  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  and 
of  many  colors,  compared  with  mud.  Dried  mud  is  the  pre¬ 
vailing  material  and  color  in  Teheran.  One  of  the  principal 
sites  in  the  city  is  occupied  by  the  “  taziah,”  or  theatre,  in 
which  religious  representations  are  given,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Ober-Ammergau  Passion-plays,  of  the  sufferings  and 
death  of  Houssein.  The  front  of  this  building  is  a  good 
specimen  of  modern  Persian  architecture,  which  in  England 
we  should  recognize  as  the  Rosherville  or  Cremorne  style — 
the  gewgaw,  pretentious,  vulgar,  and  ephemeral  style,  erected 
in  those  places  of  amusement,  only  to  be  seen  at  night,  and  to 
last  for  a  season.  The  fagade  is  shaped  like  a  small  transept 
of  the  Crystal  Palace,  and  covered  with  florid,  coarse  decora¬ 
tions  in  plaster,  with  headings  of  bits  of  coarse  looking-glass, 
bright  blue,  red,  yellow,  and  green  being  plentifully  laid  upon 
the  plaster  wherever  there  is  opportunity.  Behind  this  is  the 
Shah’s  palace,  which  is  better,  in  that  the  plaster  is  uncolored. 
The  gate  which  leads  to  this  central  inclosure,  the  citadel, 
or  arg  (the  same  word  probably  as  “  ark  ”),  of  Teheran,  is  of 
the  same  Tunbridge-ware  pattern  as  the  town  gates ;  but  the 
arches  are  filled  with  extravagant  representations,  in  tiles  of 
the  coarsest  colors,  of  the  triumphs  of  legendary  heroes  of 
Persia  over  terrible  creatures  which  can  have  existed  only  in 
the  fancy  of  the  artist.  The  excessively  grotesque  in  these 
mosaics  gives  them  a  certain  curious  interest.  It  is  upon  the 
inner  side  of  this  gate-way  that  one  sees  to  what  a  low  level 
Persian  art  has  descended.  The  ornaments  of  this  most  im¬ 
portant  and  central  gate  in  Teheran  are  representations  of 
Persian  soldiers,  life-size,  the  painting  of  the  glazed  tiles  being 
very  much  such  as  is  seen  in  the  east  end  of  London  upon  the 
street  bills  of  the  lowest  music-halls.  In  drawing,  each  sol¬ 
dier  is  like  the  “  men  ”  we  are  accustomed  to  see  from  the 


NEGLECT  OF  PUBLIC  WORKS. 


165 


pencil  of  children  of  three  or  four  years  old.  The  features  of 
each  man  are  upon  one  plan ;  they  have  the  same  leer  as 
those  of  his  companions ;  the  mustache  is  a  brick  and  a  half 
long,  and  the  black  boots  are  hanging  painfully,  as  if  tortured 
in  the  search  for  some  clod  or  cloud  to  stand  upon.  The  or¬ 
namentation  of  the  exterior  of  some  of  the  mosques  with 
these  colored  bricks,  chiefly  of  light  blue  and  yellow,  is  very 
effective ;  but  we  met  with  no  place  in  which  this  work  was 
not  more  or  less  disfigured  by  ruin ;  and  repair  does  not  seem 
to  be  the  business  of  any  person  or  department. 

From  one  end  of  Persia  to  the  other,  this  miserable  condi¬ 
tion  of  decay,  dilapidation,  and  ruin  is  characteristic  of  all 
public  edifices — the  mosques,  palaces,  bridges — every  thing. 
It  is  probably  correct  to  say  that  this  invariable  condition  is 
a  consequence  of  the  universal  corruption  of  the  Government. 
The  work  of  maintenance  and  repair  belongs  to  the  Executive 
Government,  and  the  funds  which  should  be  thus  expended 
pass  into  the  rapacious  pockets  of  the  governors  of  the  coun¬ 
try.  The  gross  neglect  of  useful  public  works  in  Persia  re¬ 
called  to  my  mind  a  passage  in  which  Adam  Smith  refers  to 
this  as  one  of  the  worst  symptoms  of  the  worst  administra¬ 
tion.  He  nearly  describes  the  state  of  things  in  Persia  in  the 
following  passage,  which  had  reference  to  the  condition  of  the 
by-roads  in  France  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  centu¬ 
ry  ;  with  the  difference,  that  in  Persia  no  one  delights  in  ex¬ 
penditure  of  any  sort  for  the  j^ublic  advantage.  Expenditure 
is  never  made  except  with  a  view  to  private  plunder.  The 
proud  minister  of  an  ostentatious  court  may  frequently  take 
pleasure  in  executing  a  work  of  splendor  and  magnificence, 
such  as  a  great  highway  which  is  frequently  seen  by  the  prin¬ 
cipal  nobility,  whose  applauses  not  only  flatter  his  vanity,  but 
even  contribute  to  support  his  interest  at  court.  But  to  exe¬ 
cute  a  number  of  little  works  in  which  nothing  that  can  be 
done  can  make  any  great  appearance,  or  excite  the  smallest 


166 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


degree  of  admiration  in  any  traveler,  and  which,  in  short,  have 
nothing  to  recommend  them  but  their  extreme  utility,  is  a 
business  which  appears  in  every  respect  too  mean  and  paltry 
to  merit  the  attention  of  so  great  a  magistrate.  Under  such 
an  administration,  therefore,  such  works  are  almost  entirely 
neglected.”* 

Passing  from  north  to  south,  almost  the  first  house  in  Te¬ 
heran,  and  certainly  the  best,  is  that  of  the  British  Legation. 
John  Bull  must  have  been  caught  in  a  liberal  mood,  and  with 
loose  purse-strings,  when  the  vote  was  taken  for  this  array  of 
buildings ;  or  is  it  not  probable  that  poor  India  helped  to  pay 
for  this  residence?  In  Persia,  it  is  the  fixed  idea  of  all  peo¬ 
ple  that  Russia  and  England  are  rival  powers.  The  ascend¬ 
ency  of  the  influence  of  one  or  the  other  at  the  court  of  the 
Shah  varies  with  men  and  circumstances.  But  although  the 
Russian  Legation  is  not  nearly  so  fine  a  place  as  the  house  of 
the  British  minister,  yet  it  is  generally  understood  in  Teheran 
that  at  present  Russian  authority  is  predominant.  Most  Per¬ 
sian  statesmen  have  a  decided  leaning  toward  England ;  and 
His  Highness  Mirza  Houssein  Khan,  the  present  chief  minis¬ 
ter  of  the  Shah,  is  no  exception.  But,  of  course,  the  Persian 
liking  for  England  is  a  natural  preference  for  that  power 
which  is  the  less  suspected  of  designs  upon  the  independence 
of  the  country.  However,  it  is  certainly  believed  that  a  com¬ 
plainant  is  better  off  when  he  is  backed  by  the  Russian  envoy. 
The  Sadr  Azem,  as  the  chief  minister  is  called  (though  Hous¬ 
sein  Khan  was  Sipar  Salar — commander-in-chief  —  when  we 
were  in  Teheran),  may  prefer  the  English  envoy  to  the  Rus¬ 
sian  ;  but  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  he  would  move  more 
quickly  at  the  demand  of  the  latter.  From  the  British  Lega¬ 
tion,  in  a  straight  southward  line,  are  the  taziah,  the  palace, 
and,  farther  on,  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  town,  the  ba- 


*  “  Wealth  of  Nations,”  book  v.,  art.  3,  part  i. 


167 


CARAVANSERAI  AMEER.” 

zaars  and  caravanserais.  It  is  there  one  can  take  the  truest 
measure  of  Persian  civilization.  Every  one  knows  what  an 
Oriental  bazaar  is  like;  in  Teheran  it  is  a  labyrinth  of  narrow 
ways,  some  of  which  are  covered  with  well-executed  brick 
arching,  in  which  customers,  camels,  donkeys,  Persians  of  high 
degree,  attended  by  half  a  dozen  servants,  who  rudely  clear  a 
way  for  the  great  man ;  Persians  of  low  degree,  and  in  al¬ 
most  every  stage  of  undress ;  veiled  women,  and  once  a  week 
perhaps  a  European  —  jostle  all  day  long,  while  the  sellers 
sit  mute  and  motionless,  rarely  soliciting  the  custom  of  the 
throng.  The  dark  shade,  flecked  with  patches  of  bright  sun¬ 
light,  which  is  perhaps  not  the  least  noticeable  feature  of  an 
Oriental  bazaar,  is  broken  occasionally  by  the  entry  to  a  cara¬ 
vanserai  or  mosque.  The  commercial  caravanserais  are  some¬ 
times  attractive,  the  centre  of  the  open  square  being  occupied 
by  fountains,  and  the  space  itself  with  plane-trees.  Around 
the  square,  in  large  boxes,  closed  with  heavy  wooden  shutters 
when  the  day’s  work  is  over,  sit  the  merchants.  The  name  of 
the  finest  caravanserai  recalls  to  mind  the  great  crime  of  the 
Shah’s  long  reign — the  cruel  execution,  at  his  majesty’s  word, 
of  the  most  honest  and  best  of  his  ministers,  the  Ameer-el- 
Nizam.  The  Caravanserai  Ameer  ”  of  Teheran  is  known  on 
all  the  paths  of  Persia. 


168 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Teheran. — Street  of  the  Foreign  Envoys. — The  British  Minister. — Lanterns 
of  Ceremony. — The  English  in  Teheran. — The  Shah’s  Palace. — Mirza 
Houssein  Khan. — The  Sipar  Salar. — An  Oriental  Minister. — Persian  Cor¬ 
ruption. — Mirza  Houssein  Khan’s  Policy. — His  Ketinue. — Brigandage  in 
Persia. — Saloon  of  Audience. — The  Jeweled  Globe. — The  Shah’s  Throne. 
—  The  Old  Hall. — Persians  and  the  Alhambra. — The  Shah  receiving 
Homage. — Eustem  and  the  White  Devil. — Keports  in  Teheran. — The 
English  Courier. — Character  of  Persian  Government. — The  Green  Draw¬ 
ing-room. —  The  Shah’s  Album.  —  Persians  and  Patriots.  —  The  Shah’s 
Jewels. — The  “Sea  of  Light.” 

At  an  open  door  in  the  wall  of  the  best  .street  in  Teheran, 
which  I  have  referred  to  as  the  ‘‘  Belgravia  ”  of  the  city,  and 
which  might  be  called  ‘^the  Street  of  the  Foreign  Envoys,” 
our  twelve  days’  march  ended.  We  were  at  Prevot’s,  a  Per¬ 
sian  house,  kept  by  a  Frenchman  as  a  hotel,  with  Armenian 
servants.  We  found  three  small  rooms  prepared  for  us,  look¬ 
ing  upon  a  paved  yard  about  as  large  as  the  rooms,  with  a 
door-way  leading  to  the  larger  quadrangle,  which  forms  the 
usual  centre  of  a  house  in  Teheran.  From  the  windows  we 
could  see  a  plastered  wall  four  yards  distant,  and  that  was 
all ;  a  miserable,  depressing  prosj^ect  in  a  city  the  situation  of 
which  is  highly  picturesque.  In  an  hour  I  called  on  the  En¬ 
glish  minister,  Mr.  Taylour  Thomson,  whose  visit  to  us  the 
next  morning  was  followed  by  entertainments  which  made  us 
more  or  less  acquainted  with  the  European  element  in  the 
population  of  Teheran. 

Mr.  Thomson  is  in  some  points  undoubtedly  well  qualified 
for  his  post.  But  it  is  only  just  to  say  that  bis  long  service 
in  countries  so  remote  as  Persia  and  Chili  (he  acted  as  charge- 


LANTERNS  OF  CEREMONY. 


169 


d’affaires  for  fifteen  years  in  South  America)  has  had  the  nat¬ 
ural  and  inevitable  consequence.  Mr.  Thomson  is  far  better 
acquainted  with  Persian  modes  of  thought  and  with  Persian 
politics  than  with  the  affairs,  and  the  thoughts,  and  the  policy 
of  his  own  country,  and  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  very  much  if 
this  is  desirable  for  one  in  his  position.  Local  knowledge  is 
unquestionably  valuable — it  is,  indeed,  indispensable;  but  I 
believe  it  to  be  far  more  important  that  the  envoy  of  a  coun¬ 
try  should  be  closely  familiar  with  the  mind  and  disposition 
of  those  whom  Lord  Derby  has  lately  called  his  “  employers,” 
and  this  can  not  be  the  possession  of  a  man  whose  memory 
has  to  pass  over  five-and-forty  years  before  it  reaches  the  time 
when  he  was  resident  in  England. 

Mr.  Thomson  is  a  man  in  whom  strength  of  will  and  direct¬ 
ness  of  speech,  two  important  qualities  in  English  dealings 
with  Orientals,  are  plainly  marked.  His  deficiencies,  I  should 
say,  are  due  to  the  absence  of  a  life-time  from  the  polishing  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  capitals  of  Europe,  and  in  political  knowledge, 
from  the  stimulating  action  of  English  opinion,  which,  during 
the  years  of  his  long  and  honorable  diplomatic  service,  has 
undergone  a  change  far  more  remarkable  than  was  ever 
brought  about  at  one  stroke  by  the  swift  agency  of  revolu¬ 
tion. 

He  has  mastered,  and  that  is  no  small  matter,  the  curiosi¬ 
ties  of  Persian  etiquette.  It  baffles  the  simple  English  mind 
to  conceive  a  plan  by  which  rank  can  be  indicated  at  night  in 
a  dark,  unlighted  city,  where  the  streets  are  full  of  holes.  But 
Avith  the  Persian  rank  is  every  thing;  and  this  is  denoted  at 
night  according  to  the  size  and  number  of  lanterns  by  which 
the  progress  of  the  great  is  illuminated.  The  ceremonious 
lanterns  of  Teheran,  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  have 
a  metal  top  and  bottom,  the  intervening  and  luminous  space 
being  of  plain  or  colored  linen,  about  a  yard  deep.  Through 
a  ring  in  the  top  the  bearer  passes  his  arm,  and,  holding  it 

8 


170 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


high,  he  can  just  keep  the  lantern  from  off  the  ground  as  he 
walks.  On  the  occasion  of  a  dinner  at  the  British  Legation, 
or  any  similar  festival  elsewhere,  these  lanterns  are  seen  ad¬ 
vancing  from  all  quarters,  followed  by  guests,  who  are  invisi¬ 
ble  in  the  surrounding  gloom. 

We  were  received  with  much  kindness  by  the  English  in 
Teheran.  I  can  imagine  nothing  more  wearisome  than  their 
position.  Their  houses,  for  the  most  part  built  in  Persian 
fashion,  are  dull  beyond  description,  because  they  have  no 
view  of  the  grand  outlook  upon  the  mountains,  to  which  it 
is  always  a  relief  to  turn  from  the  wretchedness  of  Teheran. 
They  have  what  they  call  “a  drive” — a  long,  straight  road 
over  the  plain  in  the  direction  of  a  suburban  palace  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  Shah — a  road  which  is  flat,  tedious,  and  horribly 
dusty,  one  of  those  dreadful  promenades  of  which  the  end  is 
seen  from  the  commencement.  They  have  their  parties,  their 
coursings,  their  balls,  in  all  of  which  they  are  doomed  to  look 
on  combinations  of  the  same  faces.  ‘‘We  are  now,”  writes 
one  of  them,  “  looking  forward  to  a  ball  next  Monday,  given 

by - ,  the  - charge -d’affaires.  Fifty-eight  Europeans 

are  invited.  They  are  all  sure  to  come ;  and  as  the  ladies  do 
not  number,  all  told,  fifteen,  the  black-coat  element  necessarily 
preponderates.”  Narrowness  is  born  of  such  circumstances, 
but  there  is  an  absence  of  scandal  among  the  European  com¬ 
munity  of  Teheran  which  is  praiseworthy. 

The  English  minister  obtained  permission  for  us  to  visit 
the  Shah’s  palace  in  Teheran,  and  added  the  honor  and  ad¬ 
vantage  of  his  company.  As  is  usual  in  Teheran,  Mr.  Thom¬ 
son’s  carriage  was  surrounded  by  mounted  servants.  It  is 
impossible  to  avoid  much  ceremony  when  the  English  minis¬ 
ter  visits  the  palace.  We  passed  through  the  gate  of  the 
citadel,  adorned  with  the  soldiers,  to  the  taziah,  which  closes 
the  end  of  the  street.  Then,  turning  between  the  walls  of 
the  palace  gardens,  which  were  lined  with  lounging  guards, 


THE  shah’s  palace. 


171 


we  alighted  at  the  simple  entrance  to  one  of  the  court-yards 
of  the  palacCj  the  buildings  of  which  are  all  loWj  and  divided 
by  these  inclosures,  in  which  there  are  rows  of  tall  plane-trees 
and  paved  rectangular  walks. 

The  minister  was  received  by  a  large  cluster  of  officials 
and  servants,  with  whom  we  approached  the  principal  hall  of 
audience,  which  resembles  an  open  temple.  There  is  a  mixt¬ 
ure  of  Swiss  and  Chinese  forms  in  the  construction  of  the 
wooden  roof,  the  sides  of  which  are  suj^ported  by  four  large 
twisted  columns  richly  gilded.  There  are  hangings  of  stout 
hempen  stuff,  by  which  the  whole  saloon  can  be  protected 
from  the  weather;  but  the  intention  is  that  it  should  be  open, 
and  the  Shah’s  reception  visible  to  all  upon  the  lower  level 
of  the  court-yards.  This  is  the  place  in  which  his  majesty 
(who  was  at  the  time  living  in  one  of  his  palaces  near  the 
Caspian  shore)  receives,  on  the  occasion  of  a  salaam  or  levee, 
the  diplomatic  body  and  other  persons  of  distinction.  This 
saloon  is  raised  by  six  high  steps  from  the  court-yard,  and  is 
nearly  sixty  feet  long,  with  a  width  of  about  twenty-five  feet. 
From  the  richly  carpeted  floor,  we  overlooked  the  court-yards, 
through  which  ran  a  stream  of  clear  water,  passing  beneath 
the  saloon  in  a  paved  channel. 

We  were  enjoying  a  first  glance  at  this  curious  apartment, 
the  ceiling  of  which  is  set  with  facets  of  looking-glass  (these, 
if  they  had  been  clean,  would  have  been  gorgeous  with  pris¬ 
matic  colors),  when  a  posse  of  barefooted  servants  entered, 
something  after  the  manner  of  a  theatrical  procession,  evi¬ 
dently  preceding  some  very  great  personage.  It  was  His 
Highness  the  Sipar  Salar,  acting  Prime  Minister  of  the  Shah, 
Mirza  Houssein  Khan,  who,  when  he  accompanied  his  impe¬ 
rial  master  to  London,  was  Sadr  Azem,  which  is  the  highest 
official  title,  and  is,  in  fact,  the  Persian  equivalent  of  Prime 
Minister.  But  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  is  not  a  popular  man, 
and  upon  his  return  to  Persia  with  His  Majesty  the  Shah,  a 


1'72  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

storm  of  hatred  had  risen  against  him,  to  which  the  Shah  in¬ 
clined  so  far  as  to  deprive  his  clever  minister  of  the  title  of 
Sadr  Azem.  The  life  of  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  w^as  thought 
to  be  in  danger,  and  it  is  said  in  Teheran  that  an  order  for 
his  execution  was  arrested  only  by  reminding  the  Shah  that 
one  who  has  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Star  of  India  must,  as 
a  member  of  a  most  illustrious  English  brotherhood,  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  person  not  to  be  given  over  to  the  knife  or  the 
bowstring  of  the  executioner,  without  consideration  for  the 
opinion  of  Europe. 

The  Sipar  Salar,  next  to  the  Shah  himself,  the  greatest 
personage  in  the  country,  was  in  undress  uniform  of  Russian 
cut.  His  overcoat  resembled  precisely,  excepting  its  orna¬ 
ments,  that  of  a  Russian  officer.  He  wore  the  Persian  hat, 
black  trousers,  and  pumps  ”  of  polished  leather,  which  made 
a  considerable  exposition  of  his  white  stockings.  Probably 
his  highness  wore  these  slight  shoes  in  order  to  place  him¬ 
self  upon  equality  with  the  Europeans  who  were  treading  the 
imperial  carpets  in  their  walking -boots.  In  pumps,  he  was 
equal  to  the  custonls  of  either  continent;  these  could  easily 
be  laid  aside  if  he  desired  to  appear  in  Persian  fashion,  in 
his  stockings.  His  highness  was  the  only  Persian  whose  feet 
W'ere  shod.  Of  his  large  retinue  of  more  than  fifty  persons, 
those  who  mounted  with  the  Sipar  Salar  into  the  saloon  had 
left  their  shoes  upon  the  pavement  below.  Mirza  Houssein 
Khan  is  a  man  about  middle  height  and  middle  age,  with, 
for  a  Persian,  commonplace  features,  full  of  mobility,  and  ex¬ 
pressing  great  cleverness.  He  talks  French  fluently,  and  has 
a  quick  ruse  manner.  An  artificial  manner  is  cultivated  by 
Persians,  who  in  public  affairs  and  correspondence  do  not 
affect  sincerity.  The  Sipar  Salar  is  a  man  whom,  even  at 
first  sight,  one  feels  little  disposed  to  trust;  a  statesman  of 
very  superior  ability  and  intelligence,  probably  spoiled  by 
the  cruel  difficulties  of  his  position.  If  the  reports  current 


A5T  OEIENTAL  MINISTER. 


173 


ill  Teheran  are  true,  his  highness  has  not  found  it  easy  to 
keep  his  head  on  his  shoulders  in  a  great  position  in  a  coun¬ 
try  governed  by  a  wayward  despot,  whose  mind  may  at  any 
time  be  fatally  influenced  against  his  minister. 

An  Oriental  minister,  even  so  clever  a  man  as  Mirza  Hous- 
sein  Khan,  does  not  seem  desirous  of  pushing  his  own  coun¬ 
try  into  European  grooves  when  he  has  traveled  in  the  West¬ 
ern  Continent,  If  such  ideas  ever  enter  into  such  minds, 
they  are,  at  all  events,  soon  abandoned.  He  has,  and  that 
in  itself  is  no  small  advantage,  a  truer  estimate  than  can  be 
formed  by  his  untraveled  countrymen  of  the  strength,  power, 
and  wealth  of  the  nations  of  Europe.  But  it  is  the  Palais 
Koyal  of  Paris  rather  than  the  Palace  of  Westminster  which 
fills  the  largest  place  in  his  mind.  His  longing,  as  a  rule, 
turns  rather  to  the  former  than  to  the  latter.  In  his  shallow, 
courteous  conversation,  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  did  not  appear 
to  me  to  have  any  other  view  for  Persia  than  that  of  battling 
with  the  difiiculties  of  his  own  position,  which  I  have  no 
doubt  are  very  engrossing.  As  he  is  certainly  in  experience 
the  ablest  and  most  competent  of  Persian  statesmen,  Mirza 
Houssein  Khan  would  seem  to  be  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place.  But  his  is  a  position  which  would  break  the  heart  of 
a  good  man.  One  can  imagine  a  good  man  killing  himself 
in  the  effort  to  reform  the  Government  of  Persia.  But  suc¬ 
cess  would  seem  impossible,  and  endurance  must  lead  to 
compromise  with  evil  and  corruption  of  every  sort.  A  vio¬ 
lent  death  would  be  the  likely  end  of  a  good  man  in  such  a 
jiosition,  and  wealth  that  of  one  who  would  accept  the  place 
and  swim  in  the  stream  of  corruption. 

People  say  that  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  has  preferred  the 
latter  course.  A  week  before  we  met  his  highness  on  this 
visit  to  the  Shah’s  palace,  the  following  was  written  for  publi¬ 
cation  with  reference  to  him  by  a  resident  in  Teheran,  who 
has  had  opportunity  of  forming  a  mature  judgment  upon  the 


174 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


estimation  in  which  this  undoubtedly  able  minister  is  held  in 
Persia : 

“  Since  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  has  been  at  the  head  of  af¬ 
fairs  in  Persia,  the  country,  both  socially  and  politically,  has 
followed  a  visibly  retrograde  movement.  On  him  at  one 
time  all  hopes  of  progress  were  centred :  his  j)romises  of  re¬ 
form  were  great ;  but  events  have  now  shown  either  that  ho 
never  meant  to  keep  those  promises,  or  that  he  is  incapable 
of  the  task.  Of  all  the  influences  that  act  against  the  true  in¬ 
terests  of  the  State,  the  selfish  ambition  and  the  avarice  of 
this  powerful  minister  have  been  perhaps  the  most  effectual. 
To  keep  in  his  own  hands  the  whole  power  of  Government, 
and  to  enrich  himself  by  this  means,  are  with  him  the  sole 
ends  of  existence ;  and,  to  effect  his  purjDose,  he  leads  the 
Shah’s  attention  as  much  as  possible  away  from  public  affairs 
while  his  majesty  is  at  home,  which  is  now  rarely  the  case, 
as  his  chief  adviser  contrives  to  persuade  him  to  undertake 
repeated  journeys  into  the  provinces.  Thus  it  happens  that 
during  the  last  eight  months  the  Shah  has  passed  barely  ten 
days  in  the  capital.  His  majesty  is  now  on  a  hunting  expe¬ 
dition  near  Sari,  in  Mazandaran ;  and  Mirza  Houssein  Khan, 
left  completely  his  own  master,  has  surrounded  himself  with 
almost  regal  pomp.  Yesterday,  at  the  Beiram  ceremony  of 
the  salaam  [a  levee  held  by  the  third  son  of  the  Shah],  he  was 
followed  by  a  cortege  more  numerous  than  that  which  the 
king  himself  leads  on  great  occasions.  In  contrast  with  these 
displays,  the  affairs  of  Government  have  fallen  into  deplora¬ 
ble  confusion,  and  ojDpression  has  become  so  rampant  that  an 
open  manifestation  of  popular  discontent  is  to  be  expected. 
Kever  was  there  a  more  unpopular  minister.  Two  years  ago, 
"when  the  Mirza  was  execrated  as  a  reformer  by  the  nobles 
and  the  priesthood,  he  succumbed  for  a  time  to  the  opposi¬ 
tion  of  these  conservative  classes.  Kow  that  the  hatred  of 
the  populace  is  added  to  that  of  his  political  rivals,  his  fall. 


SALOON'  OF  AUDIENCE. 


175 


when  it  coniGSj  will  be  signal  indeed.  It  is  not  to  be  denied 
that  brigandage  is  flourishing  in  Persia.  Caravans  and  trav¬ 
elers  are  plundered  at  the  very  gates  of  Teheran.  Want  and 
oppression  have  turned  the  most  peaceful  of  the  population 
into  highwavmen.” 

It  may  be  that  Mirza  Houssein  Khan,  who  nearly  lost  his 
life  on  account  of  his  reputation  as  a  reformer  on  his  return 
from  London,  is  now  content  if  he  can  keep  his  head  on  his 
shoulders,  and  himself  above  all  his  rivals  on  the  surface  of 
the  foul  pool  of  ofiicial  life  in  Persia. 

Close  to  the  insignificant  door-way  by  which  we  entered 
the  saloon,  there  is  hung  upon  the  wall  a  very  large  picture, 
which,  somewhere  about  the  centre,  contains  a  full-length 
portrait  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  The  picture  is  so  large, 
and  , is  hung  in  so  important  a  position,  that,  should  other 
monarchs  who  are  on  friendly  terms  make  the  bhah  a  similar 
present,  it  would  be  quite  impossible  for  his  imperial  majesty 
to  give  even  to  one  of  them  an  equally  advantageous  display. 
When  the  Shah  received  this  portrait,  he  resolved  to  present 
in  return  a  likeness  of  himself,  and  declared  it  should  be 
placed  in  a  frame  of  solid  gold.  But  inquiry  and  calculation 
modified  his  majesty’s  intentions,  and  at  last  he  consented  to 
order  a  gilt  frame  in  Francis  Joseph’s  own  capital  city.  Be¬ 
neath  this  huge  canvas  were  hung  a  landscape  and  a  sea-piece, 
evidently  purchased  from  some  French  gallery,  the  small  tin 
plate  bearing  the  exhibition  number  of  each  picture  being 
still  in  the  corner. 

It  is  at  the  opposite  end  of  this  saloon  that  the  “  Shadow 
of  God”  sits  on  his  heels,  or  stands  to  receive  the  envoys 
of  Europe.  But  the  Shah’s  movable  throne  was  not  occupy- 
iim  the  central  niche.  There,  in  that  place  of  honor,  we  were 

•  •  A 

permitted  to  gaze  upon  one  of  the  characteristic  feats,  per¬ 
haps  the  greatest  art-^fork,  of  his  majesty’s  long  reign.  This 
is  an  eighteen-inch  globe,  covered  with  jewels  from  the  ISTorth 


176 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Pole  to  the  extremities  of  the  tripod  in  which  this  gemmed 
sphere  is  j)laced.  The  story  goes  that  his  majesty  bought — 
more  probably  accepted,  at  all  events  was  in  possession  of — 
a  heap  of  jewels,  for  which  he  could  find  no  immediate  pur¬ 
pose.  J^othing  could  add  to  the  lustre  of  his  crown  of  dia¬ 
monds,  which  is  surmounted  by  the  largest  ruby  we  have  ever 
seen,  including  those  of  her  majesty  and  the  Emperors  of 
Germany  and  Eussia.  He  had  the  Sea  of  Light,”  a  dia¬ 
mond  in  size  but  little  inferior  to  the  British  Koh-i-noor,  the 
‘‘Mountain  of  Light.”  He  had  coats  embroidered  with  dia¬ 
monds,  with  emeralds,  with  rubies,  with  pearls,  and  with  gar¬ 
nets;  he  had  jeweled  swords  and  daggers  Avithout  number; 
so,  possibly  because  his  imperial  mind  Avas  turned  toward 
ti  aA  el,  the  Shah  ordered  this  globe  to  be  constructed,  covered 
Avith  gems— the  overspreading  sea  to  be  of  emeralds,  and  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  distinguished  by  jewels  of  different 
color.  The  Englishman  notes  Avith  pride  and  gratification 
that  England  flashes  in  diamonds ;  and  a  Frenchman  may 
share  the  feeling,  for  France  glitters  illustrious  as  the  British 
isles,  being  set  out  in  the  same  most  costly  gems.  The  do¬ 
minion  of  the  Shah’s  great  neighbor,  the  brand-new  Em¬ 
press  of  India,  is  marked  Avith  amethysts ;  Avhile  torrid  Africa 
blazes  against  the  literally  emerald  sea,  a  whole  continent  of 
rubies. 

Hear  the  globe,  side  by  side  Avith  a  French  couch,  Avorth 
perhaps  a  hundred  francs,  stands  the  Shah’s  throne,  Avhich  is, 
of  course,  arranged  for  sitting  after  the  manner  of  the  coun- 
try.  It  occupies  a  space  almost  as  large  as  Mr.  Spurgeon’s  or 
Mr.  Ward  Beecher’s  pulpit;  for  the  occupants  of  this  throne 
are  fond  of  space,  and  occasionally  have  a  kalian  of  Avonder- 
ful  dimensions  Avith  them  ujpon  the  splendid  carpet,  Avhich  is 
fringed  Avith  thousands  of  pearls.  The  embroidered  bolster 
upon  Avhich  the  Shah  rests  his  back  or  arm  is  sewn  with 
pearls.  Behind  his  majesty’s  head  is  a  “sun,”  all  glittering 


THE  shah’s  THEONE. 


177 


with  jewels,  supported  at  the  corners  with  birds  in  plumage 
of  the  same  most  expensive  material. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  niche  in  which  the  globe  stands, 
there  is  a  table  grimy  with  dust  and  extremely  incongruous, 
the  top  inlaid  with  the  beautiful  work  of  Florence,  and  a  mod¬ 
el,  in  Sienna  marble,  of  the  Arch  of  Titus,  both  gifts  from  his 
holiness  the  infallible  Pope.  Near  these  presents,  in  a  recess, 
and  in  a  very  common  wooden  frame,  is  a  portrait  of  the  late 
Sir  Henry  Havelock ;  and,  not  far  off,  a  time-piece  with  run¬ 
ning  water  ”  and  a  nodding  peacock,  a  gift  from  the  defunct 
East  India  Company  in  the  days  when  Shahs  received  such 
toys  as  pleased  them,  and  were  not  considered  eligible  as 
kniorhts  of  the  great  orders  of  European  courts. 

At  a  short  distance  is  another  and  a  much  older  hall,  still 
more  exposed  to  public  view.  In  this  pavilion,  which  is  built 
to  cover  and  give  increased  dignity  to  the  ancient  throne  of 
the  Shah,  the  arrangements  are  wholly  Persian.  The  marble 
floor  is  raised  not  more  than  three  feet  above  the  pavement 
of  a  large  oblong  court-yard,  up  the  broad  paths  of  which  the 
sons  of  Iran  throng  to  make  salaam  before  their  monarch. 
The  Shah  sits  in  the  motionless  majesty  of  an  Oriental  po¬ 
tentate,  upon  a  high  throne  built  of  the  alabaster-like  greenish 
marble  of  Yezd,  the  platform  which  the  Shadow  of  God” 
occupies  being  supported  upon  animals,  having  the  same  queer 
resemblance  to  lions  which  is  noticed  in  the  supporters  of  the 
great  fountain  of  the  Alhambra  at  Granada.  With  reference 
to  this  likeness,  and  to  other  points  of  resemblance,  both  in 
this  palace  and  in  the  decorations  in  some  of  the  modern  pal¬ 
aces  of  Persia,  Major  Murdoch  Smith,  R.E.,  the  accomplished 
director  of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph,  has  indicated,  in  a  re¬ 
port  to  the  Council  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  the 
probability  that  the  Alhambra  of  Granada  was  itself  designed 
by  Persian  architects ;  and,  with  regard  to  this  supposition, 
has  pointed  to  the  statement  of  Senor  Rivadeneyra  concern- 

8* 


178 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ing  the  existence  of  official  documents  assigning  Rioja  in 
Spain  to  “  Persians  ”  as  a  place  of  residence. 

The  ceiling  of  this  old  reception-hall  in  the  Shah’s  Palace 
at  Teheran  is  fashioned  in  stalactites,  like  the  ceilings  in  the 
ruins  of  the  famous  Oriental  palace  in  Spain,  and  then  cov¬ 
ered  with  pieces  of  looking-glass,  which,  if  the  work  were  not 
bad,  and  the  glass  were  cleaned,  would  have  a  very  glittering 
effect.  Externally  the  roof  is  suggestive  of  a  Chinese  pago¬ 
da.  In  this  pavilion,  the  background  of  which  is  hung  with 
a  few  pictures  in  frames  of  looking-glass,  including  a  portrait 
of  a  singularly  handsome  young  Englishman,  formerly  at¬ 
tached  to  the  British  Legation,  the  Shah  reclines  upon  the 
marble  platform  of  his  throne,  on  those  very  great  occasions 
when  the  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  inclosure  before  it 
are  filled  with  a  moving  crowd  of  his  subjects,  to  whom  he 
is  the  impersonation  of  law  and  authority.  For  their  rever¬ 
ent  homage,  he  makes  no  sign  of  gratification  or  acknowledg¬ 
ment.  The  ‘‘  proper  thing”  for  his  majesty  to  do,  when  thus 
exhibiting  himself  in  solemn  state,  is  to  regard  their  expres¬ 
sion  of  loyalty  and  devotion  as  something  far  beneath  his  no¬ 
tice  ;  and  probably  the  imperial  gaze  passing  over  their  heads 
is  now  and  then  fixed  upon  the  coarse  mosaic  on  the  wall  at 
the  end  of  the  court -yard,  showing  how  Rustem,  the  “Ar¬ 
thur,”  the  legendary  hero,  of  Persia,  destroyed  the  White 
Devil  —  an  encounter,  it  should  be  remembered,  of  authen¬ 
ticity  as  respectable  as  that  of  St.  George  and  the  familiar 
Dragon  which  is  stamped  upon  so  many  of  the  current  coins 
of  England. 

I  had  scarcely  ceased  talking  with  the  Sipar  Salar,  whom  I 
had  seen  at  several  entertainments  in  London,  when  one  of 
the  numerous  company  whispered  in  my  ear,  pointing  to  his 
highness,  “  He  had  one  of  his  wives  strangled  lately.”  I  did 
not  for  a  moment  believe  that  this  was  any  thing  but  a  piece 
of  idle  gossip,  yet  it  is  worth  recording,  because  it  is  one  of 


EEPOETS  m  TEHERAN. 


179 


many  pieces  of  evidence  wliich  came  to  our  notice  indicating 
the  bad  state  of  society  in  Persia,  owing  to  the  uncivilized 
system  prevailing  both  in  the  family  and  in  the  State.  Per¬ 
haps  the  worst  symptom  of  the  body  politic  in  Persia  is  that 
no  one  hesitates  in  ascribing  horrible  crimes  to  the  most 
highly  placed  men  in  the  State,  and  that  the  venality  of  such 
exalted  persons  in  regard  to  the  misappropriation  of  public 
money  is  regarded  as  a  foregone  conclusion. 

A  few  days  before  our  visit  to  the  palace,  the  talk  of  all 
the  soldiery  in  Teheran,  as  we  heard  from  several  of  their 
officers,  had  been  that  the  crown  prince,  the  Governor  of 
Tabriz,  had  caused  his  wife  to  be  strangled  in  his  presence. 
Homicide  or  murder  is  a  prerogative  of  royalty  in  Persia. 
But  what  was  most  amazing  was  the  ready  reception  given 
to  the  report,  which  was  regarded,  even  by  Europeans,  as 
quite  authentic.  The  report  was  untrue.  It  had  origin  in 
the  fact  that  the  prince’s  aunt  had  lately  sent  a  second  wife 
to  her  illustrious  nephew  in  Tabriz,  and  the  anger  and  grief 
of  the  first  wife,  on  seeing  the  new  arrival,  had  been  magni¬ 
fied  into  her  death.  The  minister  of  public  ’works  is  said  to 
double  his  estimates,  and  to  retain  the  surplus  for  himself, 
after  silencing  those  whose  mouths  must  be  stopped.  The 
frequent  robberies  of  the  messengers  of  the  British  Legation, 
while  carrying  letters  and  dispatches  overland  from  Teheran 
to  Trebizonde,  have  been  the  subject  of  much  talk,  and  Per¬ 
sians  wag  their  heads  and  say  that  this  happens  because  his 
hio-hness  Mirza  Houssein  Khan  likes  to  read  Mr.  Thomson’s 
letters  to  Lord  Derby,  and  the  replies  of  the  British  Foreign 
Office. 

With  reference  to  this  curious  charge,  I  will  make  the  fol¬ 
lowing  extract  from  a  letter  'written  by  a  resident  in  Teheran, 
dated  November  2d,  “  The  English  courier,  on  his  last 

journey  from  Constantinople,  was  attacked  and  robbed  on  or 
near  the  frontier.  The  previous  courier  had  been  stopped 


180 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


and  examined  by  the  police  at  Tabriz,  on  suspicion  of  smug¬ 
gling  contraband  goods  into  the  country.  As  the  English 
parcels  alone  were  opened,  however,  the  couriers  of  the  other 
legations  never  meeting  with  adventures  of  this  kind,  some 
people  affirm  that  the  attack  upon  the  British  post  was  insti¬ 
gated  by  the  Mushir-ul-Dowleh  himself,  who  wished  to  inter¬ 
cept  or  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  cer¬ 
tain  dispatches.  I  can  not,  of  course,  pretend  to  say  whether 
or  not  this  assertion  is  true,  but  it  must  be  said  that  the  Mir- 
za’s  known  unscrupulousness  gives  it  some  color.” 

It  is  universally  believed  that  a  little  money  will  mitigate, 
and  that  much  money  will  obviate,  the  punishment  of  crime. 
That  every  ‘^hakem,”  or  governor,  may  commit  offenses 
against  the  property  and  lives  of  the  Shah’s  subjects  within 
his  province  with  impunity,  no  one  seems  to  doubt.  It  mat¬ 
ters  little,  in  forming  our  judgment  as  to  the  social  condition 
of  Persia,  whether  these  reports  are  true  or  false.  They  are 
not  all  true — some  are  certainly  false — they  may  all  be  false, 
and  yet  the  tacit,  unastonished  acceptance  of  them  as  true 
by  the  populace  implies  that  they  have  at  least  the  common 
flavor  of  the  ordinary  fruits  of  Persian  government. 

From  the  great  halls  of  state,  the  commander-in-chief,  the 
minister  of  commerce,  and  other  Persian  grandees  led  our 
party  to  an  orange  house,  through  the  centre  of  which  ran 
the  stream  of  clear  water  I  have  noticed  before  as  passing  be¬ 
neath  the  saloon  of  the  gilded  columns.  On  the  marble  pave¬ 
ment  beside  this  running  water  there  were  chairs  and  couches 
arranged,  upon  which  his  highness  invited  us  to  be  seated. 
Snowy  sherbet  and  warm  tea  were  then  served,  and  after¬ 
ward  we  proceeded  to  a  more  homely  saloon  than  those  we 
had  seen.  The  architecture  of  this  room,  a  succession  of  ar¬ 
cades,  again  carried  our  thoughts  to  Spain,  in  its  resemblance 
to  the  mosque,  now  the  cathedral,  of  Cordova.  It  was  a 
large  oblong  apartment,  the  walls  colored  green,  with  raised 


THE  shah’s  chair  OF  STATE. 


181 


decorations  in  white  plaster,  the  room  containing  three  rows 
of  arches.  On  the  walls  were  a  great  many  pictures  very 
irregularly  hung.  Many  had  in  the  corner  the  exhibition 
number  in  the  gallery  from  which  the  Shah  had  bought  them 
during  his  recent  tour ;  and  in  no  very  conspicuous  place  was 
a  small  portrait  of  her  majesty,  a  gift  presented  by  Mr.  Thom¬ 
son  to  the  Shah  on  behalf  of  the  queen.  The  floor  was  of 
parqueterie  -  work,  and  upon  it  stood  several  Sevres  jars  of 
great  value.  Very  uncomfortable  chairs,  evidently  bought  by 
people  with  little  knowledge  of  what  a  chair  should  be,  were 
ranged  against  the  walls.  On  a  table  lay  a  photographic  al¬ 
bum  containing  the  portraits  of  actresses,  of  whose  personal 
charms  the  Shah  may  be  supposed  to  have  become  acquainted 
by  report,  and  by  diligent  attendance  at  theatres  during  his 
stay  in  Europe.  At  one  end  of  the  apartment  was  an  object 
in  strange  contrast  with  the  trumpery  by  which  it  was  sur¬ 
rounded.  This  was  an  awkward,  ugly  chair  of  state  studded 
with  jewels,  having  a  footstool,  before  which  stood  a  cat-like 
representation  of  a  lion,  each  eye  a  single  emerald,  and  the 
body  rugged  with  a  coating  of  other  precious  stones.  It  was 
so  entirely  in  keeping  with  the  mixture  we  had  eveiywheie 
observed,  that  the  stand  upon  which  this  chair  was  placed 
should  be  studded  with  white-headed  German  nails  worth 
about  twopence  a  dozen  ! 

Xone  of  the  great  rooms  of  the  palace  have  covered  com¬ 
munications,  and  from  this  green  saloon  we  crossed  another 
open  court  to  a  pavilion  in  which  the  Shah  frequently  gives 
audience,  which  is  distinguished  by  the  possession  of  an  En¬ 
glish  carpet,  and  by  the  exhibition  upon  the  walls  of  two  fine 
pieces  of  Gobelins  tapestry.  One  sees  in  the  figures  upon 
tliis  tapestry,  and  in  the  portraits  upon  tlie  walls  of  the  pal¬ 
ace,  how  far  the  Persians  have  departed  from  observing  the 
rule  which  was  certainly  that  of  the  architects  of  the  Alham¬ 
bra,  and  which  is  observed  by  the  Turks  and,  all  Sunni  Mo- 


182 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


hammedans,  of  excluding  imitation  or  resemblance  of  life 
from  the  ornamentation  of  their  public  buildings. 

In  another  room  we  saw  the  imperial  jewels,  which,  by 
special  command  of  his  highness  the  Sipar  Salar,  were  laid 
out  upon  tables  for  our  inspection.  I  fancy  that  no  sover¬ 
eign  in  Europe  has  a  regalia  of  equal  value.  The  Shah  is 
especially  rich  in  diamonds  of  large,  but  not  the  very  largest 
size.  He  has  a  great  number  of  which  the  surface  is  as  large 
as  a  silver  sixpence.  The  imperial  crown  is  topped  with  a 
ruby  which  is  probably  the  largest  in  the  world.  The  “  Sea 
of  Light,”  a  flat,  ill-cut  diamond,  mounted  in  a  semi-barbaric 
ornament,  is  inferior  to  the  great  jewel  worn  by  the  Empress 
of  India.  The  display  of  the  Shah’s  riches  in  precious  stones 
included,  of  necessity,  the  exhibition  of  several  coats,  the 
fronts  of  which  are  studded  and  embroidered  with  jewels. 
Several  of  these  became  well  known  during  the  Shah’s  tour, 
when  they  were  shown  to  the  admiring  gaze  of  European 
cities.  There,  too,  was  the  wonderful  aigrette,  which  the 
Shah’s  brow  sustained  during  the  grandest  of  the  London 
entertainments,  and  beside  these  garments  lay  a  number  of 
jeweled  swords  and  daggers.  From  the  dazzling  spectacle 
of  this  display  we  passed  again  to  the  orange  house,  where 
coffee  and  pipes  were  served,  after  which  we  took  leave  of 
the  Shah’s  ministers,  his  highness  the  Sipar  Salar  having 
promised  Mr.  Thomson  that  we  should  be  provided  with 
vizierial  letters  to  the  Governors  of  Koom,  Kashan,  Ispahan, 
Shiraz,  and  Bushire. 


183 


‘‘boxes  of  justice.” 


CHAPTER  XIL 

The  Shah. — The  Kajar  Dynasty. — Boxes  of  Justice. — Pereian  Soldiers. — ■ 
Their  Drill  and  Pay. — Military  Supper  in  Ramadan. — Jehungur  Khan. — 
The  Shah’s  Presents. — Zoological  Garden. — View  from  Teheran. — Dema¬ 
vend. — Persian  Pever. — Persian  Honesty. — ^Europeans  and  Persians. — 
Caps  and  Galoches. — A  Paper  War. — The  Ottoman  Embassy. — A  British 
Complaint. — A  Turkish  Atrocity. — Persian  Window  Law. — English  in 
Bazaars. — The  Indo-European  Telegraph  Stations  in  Persia. — The  En¬ 
glish  Clergyman  in  Persia. 

The  Shah  is  of  the  Kajar  tribe — a  dynasty  yet  young,  the 
annals  of  which  have  been  marked  by  great  cruelties.  Kazr- 
ed-deen  Shah,  Kajar,  the  reigning  monarch,  has  in  this  mat¬ 
ter  a  better  character  than  his  predecessors,  with  whom  it 
has  not  been  uncommon  to  put  out  the  eyes  of  those  relations 
who  stood  in  their  way  to  the  throne,  or  who  might  be  rivals 
when  they  had  attained  that  position.  The  Shah  himself  is 
not  unpopular,  and  is  believed  to  have  at  heart  the  welfare 
of  his  subjects.  Persians  frequently  speak  of  him  as  in  per¬ 
sonal  character  the  best  among  the  governing  men  of  the 
country,  and  they  are  never  shy  in  talking  of  their  rulers. 
If  there  is  any  tempering  in  the  Persian  despotism,  it  is  that 
of  abuse  of  all  who  surround  the  despot.  His  majesty  re¬ 
cently  issued  an  order  that  a  “Box  of  Justice”  should  be 
fixed  in  a  prominent  place  in  all  the  large  towns  for  the  re¬ 
ception  of  petitions,  which  were  to  be  forwarded  direct  to 
himself.  But  the  oppressors  found  means  to  thwart  this  in¬ 
nocent  plan  by  setting  a  watch  over  the  boxes  and  upon  those 
who  wished  to  forward  petitions. 

Thrice  the  amount  of  the  British  Prime  Minister’s  salary, 
or  twice  that  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  does  not 


184 


THKOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN^. 


satisfy  men  of  the  first  official  rank  in  Persia.  And  while 
the  prince  governors  in  the  provinces  and  all  the  high  func¬ 
tionaries  of  State  plunge  their  greedy  hands  thus  deep  into 
the  miserable  revenue,  forced — often  at  the  bayonet’s  point — 
from  the  poorest  of  peasants,  the  soldiery  are  not  seldom 
marauders,  with  the  excuse  that  they  can  not  obtain  their 
pay  from  the  Government.  The  creditors  of  the  peasants 
and  small  traders  are  generally  in  the  uniform  of  the  Shah. 
In  Persia  the  trade  of  small  money-lenders  is  usually  carried 
on  by  soldiers,  for  these  only  feel  sure  of  the  requisite  power 
to  recover  their  loans.  The  defaulter  well  knows  that  if  he 
does  not  repay  the  soldier,  his  house  or  his  store  in  the  ba¬ 
zaar  will  be  plundered  of  all  that  is  worth  taking  by  a  gang 
of  military  money-lenders. 

There  is  a  parade  every  morning  in  Teheran.  It  takes 
place  in  a  dusty  inclosure  near  the  meidan,  or  principal 
square.  We  were  present  on  several  occasions  at  these  pa¬ 
rades,  where  European  drill-instructors  vainly  labored.  The 
Persian  soldiers  are  fine  in  physique,  though  they  look  more 
awkwardj  I  fancy,'  even  than  Japanese  in  European  hats,  tu¬ 
nics,  and  trousers.  In  England  one  is  apt  to  think  that  mi¬ 
litia-men  display  every  possible  awkwardness  in  wearing  an 
infantry  hat  and  scarlet  tunic,  but  the  Persian  soldiers  beat 
the  rawest  of  oui*  militia-men.  Some  wear  the  hat  on  the 
back  of  their  heads  like  a  fez,  others  at  the  side ;  with  some 
it  falls  over  their  eyes.  Their  drill  is  wretched.  Their  of¬ 
ficers  are  probably  the  worst  part  of  the  force.  This  is  the 
special  weakness  and  inferiority  of  all  Oriental  armies.  I 
saw  a  Persian  officer  box  the  ears  of  a  private  on  the  parade- 
ground,  rushing  into  the  ranks  to  execute  this  summary  pun¬ 
ishment. 

There  is  a  reason  for  the  deficiency  of  the  rank  and  file  in 
drill.  N’o  soldier  comes  to  parade  who  can  obtain  work  in 
the  city.  The  consequence  is  that  the  personnel  of  each  skel- 


MILITAEY  SUPPER  IN  RAMADAN. 


185 


etoii  regiment  is  changed  every  morning,  and  the  unhappy 
drill-instructor  has  never  before  him  the  same  body  of  men. 
But  this  immunity  from  service  must  of  course  be  paid  for, 
and  the  absent  privates  devote  a  portion  of  their  earnings  to 
their  officers,  who,  from  their  colonel  to  the  corporal,  divide 
the  fund  contributed  in  respect  of  this '  temporary  desertion. 
From  the  officers  and  middle  class  of  State  officials,  a  some¬ 
what  intricate  method  of  plunder  is  adopted.  Their  pay,  al¬ 
though  appropriated  from  the  revenue,  is  withheld,  and  after 
repeated  applications  they  are  told  that  the  minister  will  ad¬ 
vance  the  sum  with  a  deduction  to  cover  his  personal  risk. 
The  offer  is  generally  accepted  from  pressing  necessity,  and 
the  gains  of  the  higher  functionaries  from  this  line  of  conduct 
are  said  to  be  not  inconsiderable.  I  was  assured  by  an  officer 
that  he  himself  suffered  this  treatment,  and  that  he  knew  it 
to  be  common  in  the  civil  and  military  service  of  the  Shah. 

Every  evening  in  Ramadan,  of  which  there  remained  some 
days  after  our  arrival  in  Teheran,  the  Sipar  Salar  entertained 
a  regiment  at  dinner.  The  repast  was  served  by  candle-light 
in  the  straight  street  between  the  gate  of  the  citadel  and  the 
taziah.  Two  lines  off  thick  felt  {niimmiid)  were  laid  equi¬ 
distant  from  the  centre  of  the  street,  leaving  about  a  yard  of 
the  bare  road  between  them.  Shortly  before  the  gun-fire,  his 
highness’s  guests  were  seated  in  long  files  upon  the  felt.  Aft¬ 
er  the  gun  had  boomed  permission,  huge  dishes,  one  to  every 
four  soldiers,  each  piled  high  with  rice  and  stewed  meat,  were 
placed  in  the  centre  of  the  road,  and  were  at  once  hidden 
from  view  by  the  overhanging  heads  of  the  hungry  men,  ev¬ 
ery  one  hard  at  work  with  his  fingers.  Under  such  circum¬ 
stances,  the  nearer  the  mouth  can  be  brought  to  the  dish,  the 
larger  is  the  share  which  can  be  pushed  into  it.  Close  over 
every  dish  four  heads  were  laid  together,  and  not  a  word  w^as 
uttered  till  the  platters  were  empty. 

For  the  officers  there  was  spread  a  white  cloth  between  the 


186 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJJ". 


carpets,  and  a  little  adornment  was  attempted  in  the  way  of 
bouquets  placed  between  the  lighted  candles,  which  were  pro¬ 
tected  by  Russian  bell-glasses,  and  shone  like  glow-worms 
down  the  long  street.  In  company  with  a  member  of  the 
British  Legation,  I  was  looking  on,  when  Jehungur  Khan, 
the  adjutant-general  of  the  Persian  army,  one  of  the  stoutest 
and  most  courteous  men  in  the  country,  asked  us  to  join  the 
soldiers  in  the  fruit  and  tea  which  followed  the  pillau.  We 
sat  down,  doing  all  we  could  to  get  rid  of  our  legs,  which  had 
an  awkward,  natural  tendency  to  cross  the  dining-table.  My 
immediate  neighbors  were  officers  of  the  Sliah’s  irregular  cav- 
alry,  gentlemen  wearing  turbans  almost  as  broad  as  their 
shoulders,  and  with  a  very  Bashi-bazoukish  look. 

At  that  time  a  story  was  in  circulation  with  reference  to 
this  Jehungur  Khan,  which  is  very  possibly  untrue,  but,  being 
accepted  by  many  as  correct,  is  curiously  illustrative  of  Per¬ 
sian  government.  It  was  said  that  one  of  the  courtiers  who 
owed  him  a  grudge  had  told  the  Shah  that  he  (the  adjutant- 
general)  had  saved  eight  thousand  tomans  out  of  a  work  in 
hand,  and  that  he  wished  to  i3resent  them  to  his  majesty. 
The  King  of  Kings  is  much  addicted  to  presents,  and,  as  usu¬ 
al,  graciously  signified  his  willingness  to  accept,  and  Jehun¬ 
gur  Khan  had  to  produce  the  money,  which  he  had  not  saved. 
The  Shah  does  not  appear  to  be  very  scrupulous  in  regard  to 
presents.  There  is  at  least  one  tradesman  in  London  from 
whom  articles  were  purchased  by  order  of  his  majesty  for 
presents  to  some  of  his  ladies,  which  have  not  yet  been  paid 
for,  and  probably  this  is  not  the  only  city  of  Europe  in  which 
the  Shah  obtained  articles  of  value  in  this  way  without  pay¬ 
ing  for  them. 

In  the  quarter  of  the  town  near  the  Legations  there  are 
several  walled  gardens,  and  one  of  these  is  devoted  to  zoology. 
We  were  about  to  apply  for  admission,  when  an  Englishman 
recommended  us  to  remain  outside.  The  caging  of  the  few 


MOUNT  DEMAVEND. 


187 


beasts  was,  he  said,  quite  uncertain.  The  lion  was  sometimes 
observed  taking  an  airing,  roaming  where  he  pleased  within 
the  walls,  and  the  bear  had  been  seen  from  outside  climbing  a 
plane-tree.  One  is  named  the  Shah’s  English  ”  garden,  and 
from  this  his  majesty  lately  received,  with  great  effusion,  a 
bunch  of  radishes  as  a  present  from  his  English  gardener.  If 
it  were  not  for  these  gardens,  the  appearance,  of  Teheran 
would  indeed  be  miserable.  We  mounted  upon  one  of  the 
highest  houses,  from  which  we  could  overlook  the  city.  Par¬ 
allelograms  of  mud  varied  with  cupolas  of  mud,  representing 
the  roofs  of  the  houses,  are  the  general  features,  the  long  suc¬ 
cession  of  mud  roofs  being  now  and  then  broken  by  the  taller 
plane-trees  and  the  cypresses  of  a  garden.  But  the  landscape 
is  charming,  and  even  the  Himalayas  do  not  present  grander 
elevations  than  may  be  seen  from  Teheran;  the  loftiest  peak 
of  the  Elburz  Mountains  in  sight  being  that  of  Demavend,  an 
extinct  volcano,  the  top  of  which  is  not  less  than  eighteen 
thousand  five  hundred  feet  above  the  sea-level.  The  conical 
summit  of  this  high  mountain  is  covered  with  perpetual  snow, 
and  some  of  the  peaks  near  Demavend  are  not  of  much  infe¬ 
rior  altitude. 

At  the  latter  end  of  October  I  was  prostrated  with  fever. 
I  remember  that,  in  the  witless  condition  in  which  I  lay,  the 
jDains  appeared  to  my  disordered  imagination  as  if  I  were  suf¬ 
fering  from  the  effects  of  a  terrible  beating,  and,  with  every 
muscle  sore  and  painful,  were  condemned  to  be  rolled  about 
upon  sheets  of  heated  copper.  When  I  became  convalescent, 
the  closeness  of  the  apartments  at  Prevot’s  seemed  intoler¬ 
able,  and,  through  the  kindness  of  a  Danish  officer,  Mr.  Laes- 
soe,  resident  in  Teheran,  we  removed  to  a  suite  of  rooms  in 
liis  house,  which  had  been  the  residence  of  the  French  Lega¬ 
tion.  There  we  had  a  large  garden,  and  an  open  view  of  the 
plain  and  mountains.  Mr.  Laessoe  holds  the  position  of  chief 
instructor  of  artillery  in  the  army  of  the  Shah.  His  wife, 


188 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


from  whom  also  we  received  much  kindness,  is  a  daughter  of 
the  distinguished  painter,  Madame  Jerichau. 

At  the  house  of  every  European  of  position  in  Teheran 
there  is  a  permanent  guard  of  soldiers,  who  hurriedly  forsake 
their  pipe,  or  game  of  cards  upon  the  dust,  to  present  arms 
upon  the  arrival  of  any  visitor.  The  doors  of  these  houses 
are  generally  open  throughout  the  day;  and  as  Persians  re¬ 
gard  an  open  door  as  an  invitation  to  enter,  and  the  rooms  are 
never  locked,  and  rarely  closed  with  any  thing  more  obstruct¬ 
ive  than  a  cotton  curtain,  it  is  necessary  there  should  be 
some  guard  in  the  door -way.  Europeans  talk  much  of  the 
dishonesty  of  Persians,  but  our  experience  did  not  confirm 
the  bad  opinion.  Our  suite  of  rooms  in  this  mud-built  house, 
which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  French  envoy,  opened 
upon  a  large  square  garden  inclosed  by  a  mud -wall,  ruined 
and  broken  down  in  three  or  four  places,  by  which  any  one 
might  enter.  Our  doors  and  windows  had  no  fastenings,  and 
by  either  it  was  never  difficult  to  enter  the  rooms  from  the 
garden.  On  the  other  side  was  a  court-yard,  with  a  fountain 
and  a  few  trees  in  the  centre ;  and  this,  except  for  the  sol¬ 
diers  and  servants  who  lay  about  in  the  passages  connecting 
it  with  the  crowded  street,  was  quite  open.  Yet  we  never 
suffered  any  loss  from  theft. 

The  manner  in  which  Europeans  meet  Persian  habits  half¬ 
way,  in  their  intercourse  with  the  highest  class  of  natives,  al¬ 
ways  appears  to  me  ridiculous  and  humiliating.  It  is  a  clean¬ 
ly  habit,  that  of  Mohammedans,  not  to  enter  their  carpeted 
apartments  in  the  shoes  they  have  worn  in  the  mud  of  the 
filthy  ways  and  streets  of  Oriental  towns.  No  doubt,  if  we 
could  choose,  many  of  us  in  London  would  prefer  that  our 
visitors  should  carry  their  boots  in  their  hands  and  their  hats 
on  their  heads,  rather  than  the  reverse,  especially  upon  a 
muddy  day.  But  the  English  in  Persia  confound  both  prac¬ 
tices  in  a  most  unseemly  way.  They  wear  their  hats  in  the 


A  PAPER  WAR. 


189 


presence  of  Persians  of  high  rank  as  a  compromise  with  na¬ 
tive  prejudice,  which  from  habit  dislikes  to  see  the  head  un¬ 
covered,  and  embarrass  their  feet  with  galoches  in  order  that 
they  may  leave  these  overshoes  at  the  door  of  the  great  man’s 
apartment.  In  the  course  of  our  own  travels  in  Persia,  I  no¬ 
ticed  this  on  the  part  of  Europeans ;  but  even  after  such  ex¬ 
perience,  I  was  rather  surprised  to  find  it  elevated  to  a  duty 
in  the  recently  published  volumes  edited  by  Sir  Frederic  G. 
Goldsmid,  and  entitled  Eastern  Persia.”  By  officers  of  the 
Boundary  Commission  galoches  for  ceremonious  receptions 
were  provided  as  indispensable,  and  the  members  of  the  Com¬ 
mission  always  sat  on  these  occasions  in  their  undress  caps. 
I  should  fancy  that,  to  a  quick-witted  people  like  the  Per¬ 
sians,  this  appears  very  absurd.  For  my  own  part,  in  any  in¬ 
tercourse  with  men  of  the  highest  rank  and  of  the  imperial 
family  in  Persia,  I  never  adopted  these  fashions.  One  need 
not  soil  carpets  in  a  country  where  riding  is  universal,  nor 
encourage  premature  baldness  by  Avearing  one’s  hat  when 
there  is  no  need  of  shelter  from  the  sun  or  the  outer  air. 

During  our  stay  in  Teheran,  a  fierce  paper  war  was  raging 
with  reference  to  a  dispute  Avhich,  in  continuation  of  the 
above  remarks,  shows  what  a  tendency  Englishmen  have  to 
take  local  coloring  in  their  domestic  habits.  The  peculiar 
construction  of  Persian  houses  has  an  object,  that  of  securing 
most  complete  privacy  for  the  inmates.  It  is  true  that  there 
is  no  part  of  a  Persian  house  which  can  not  be  looked  into  by 
any  of  the  inhabitants ;  but  this  does  not  offend  Mussulman 
ideas,  of  which  the  first  is  that  the  male  head  of  the  house¬ 
hold  is  lord  of  all,  and  that  none  can  have  rights  separate 
from  his  supreme  authority.  Persians  much  dislike  rooms 
raised  above  the  ground- floor,  because  these  erections  may 
enable  neighbors  to  observe  their  domestic  arrangements. 
Many  tales  are  told  of  the  fierce  opposition  which  the  inten¬ 
tion  to  raise  a  second  story  has  aroused  in  the  hearts  of 


190 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


neighbors,  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  not  permitted  by  the  authorities 
to  any  one  to  build  so  as  to  overlook  another  house. 

War  had  broken  out  upon  this  domestic  question  between 
the  representatives  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
■  pire.  The  mediation  of  Persia  had  been  called  in,  and  Mirza 
Houssein  Khan  was  engaged  in  arranging  a  treaty  of  peace 
and  future  amity.  The  British  envoy’s  object  was  to  circum¬ 
vent  the  wicked  and  abominable  design  of  the  Ottoman  em¬ 
bassador  (the  politicians  of  the  Porte  have,  as  a  rule,  no  Mus¬ 
sulman  prejudices),  who  had  dared  to  build  an  embassy-house 
in  sight  of  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  add  a  second  story, 
from  which  it  was  possible  to  see  something  of  the  ladies  of 
the  British  Legation  (the  subsequent  tale  about  the  archives 
is  too  ridiculous  to  be  true)  if  they  happened  to  be  walking 
in  the  extensive  grounds  in  which  are  the  houses  of  the  secre¬ 
taries  and  attaches,  as  well  as  the  residence  of  the  minister. 

The  Bulgarian  atrocities  had  not  then  been  heard  of,  and 
one  might  have  thought  that  no  subject  of  Great  Britain 
need  object  to  be  exposed  to  the  eye  of  a  Turk  with  an  in¬ 
terval  of  not  less  than  five  hundred  yards.  But  this  was  not 
the  view  of  the  British  Legation.  That  the  British  establish¬ 
ment  should  command  a  view  of  the  Ottoman  quarters  was 
quite  unobjectionable;  but  that  the  Turk  should  be  able  to 
cast  an  eye  upon  the  Englishman’s  garden  was  intolerable. 
I  do  not  know  how  this  great  international  difficulty  has  been 
arranged  ;  but,  since  our  return  to  England,  I  have  met  with 
a  published  letter  written  about  the  time  of  our  visit  by  a 
gentleman  who  lives  in  Teheran,  which  is  probably,  at  least 
on  some  points,  well  informed.  This  correspondent  says: 
“A  short  time  ago  the  Turkish  Government  hired  a  building 
for  fifteen  years,  to  serve  as  a  residence  for  its  representative. 
The  edifice  stands  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  Brit¬ 
ish  Legation,  which  is  surrounded  by  a  garden  inclosed  by  a 
high  wall.  The  wall  is,  however,  not  high  enough  to  conceal 


A  TURKISH  ATROCITY. 


191 


the  upper  part  of  the  Legation.  The  Turks  wished  to  add  a 
story  to  their  Legation ;  but  the  English  minister,  on  hearing 
of  their  intention,  opposed  it,  on  the  ground  that,  if  carried 
out,  it  would  afford  to  the  denizens  of  the  Turkish  ^  palace  ’ 
a  view  into  the  apartments  occupied  by  the  secretaries  of  the 
English  mission,  and,  to  give  greater  weight  to  his  assertion, 
said  that  the  archives  of  the  Legation  w'ould  be  exposed  to 
prying  eyes.  The  Mushir-ul-Dowleh  received  a  comjDlaint  to 
this  effect  in  due  form  from  Mr.  Thomson,  and,  instead  of  de¬ 
clining  to  interfere  in  a  matter  which  did  not  concern  him, 
promised  to  arrange  matters  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  En¬ 
glish  minister.  By  his  order,  a  commission  was  appointed 
to  examine  the  relative  positions  of  the  two  edifices ;  but  the 
result  of  their  inspection  was  far  from  satisfactory  for  Mr. 
Thomson.  They  stated  not  only  that  the  distance  between 
the  two  Legations  was  too  considerable  to  allow  of  any  per¬ 
son  in  the  Turkish  Legation  becoming  acquainted  from  that 
vantage-ground  with  the  contents  of  any  documents  exposed 
to  view  in  the  archive  office  of  the  English  Legation,  the  lat¬ 
ter  being  situated  at  least  a  third  of  a  mile  from  its  Turkish 
neighbor,  but  that  none  of  the  windows  of  the  English  ar¬ 
chive  office  faced  the  new  building.  They  observed,  more¬ 
over,  that  if  Mr.  Thomson  desired  absolutely  to  conceal  the 
roof  of  his  habitation,  he  had  only  to  add  a  foot  or  two  to 
the  height  of  his  garden  walls.”  The  letter  (which  appeared 
in  the  Levant  Herald)  goes  on  to  state  that,  undaunted  by 
this  adverse  decision,  ‘‘  Mr.  Thomson  raised  the  precedent 
of  one  Melcom,  an  English  subject  at  Bushire,  Avho,  in  the 
course  of  certain  building  operations,  was  sued  at  law^  by 
some  neighbors  jealous  of  their  privacy,  and  forced  to  aban¬ 
don  or  modify  his  undertaking.  The  dispute  has  thus  been 
placed  in  a  new  light.  Either  it  is  not  lawful  in  Persia  to 
have  windows  commanding  a  prospect  of  another  man’s 
house,  even  at  a  distance  of  five  hundred  yards,  or  it  is  law- 


192 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


fill  to  have  windows  possessing  that  not  uncommon  peculiar¬ 
ity.  In  the  former  case,  the  Turkish  Legation  has  no  course 
left  but  to  close  up  all  its  windows  permanently  and  alter  its 
fa9ade;  in  the  latter  case,  the  judgment  pronounced  against 
Mr.  Melcom  of  Bushire  is  illegal,  and  the  Persian  Govern¬ 
ment  owes  him  heavy  damages.”  Let  us  hope  that  this 
storm  about  mud-walls  and  windows  has  now  been  arranged 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties. 

To  my  mind,  the  most  interesting  part  of  Teheran  is  to  be 
found  in  the  bazaars,  which  the  Europeans  of  the  legations 
very  rarely  enter,  and  their  ladies  never.  The  men  appear 
to  regard  the  shoving-about  to  which  one  must  more  or  less 
submit  in  the  narrow  ways  of  the  bazaars  as  a  serious  in¬ 
fringement  upon  the  dignity  of  their  position,  and  the  ladies 
consider  a  visit  to  the  bazaars  as  simply  impossible.  The 
sight  of  an  unveiled  woman  has  no  doubt  a  tendency  to  make 
Persians  use  language  which  can  not  but  be  taken  as  in¬ 
sulting  ;  and  if  Englishmen  in  their  company  are  acquainted 
with  Persian  slang,  they  are  likely  enough  to  have  a  quarrel 
or  two  on  hand  in  passing  through  a  bazaar.  Ignorance  of 
the  vernacular  has  unquestionably  some  advantages  in  Persia. 

A  long  inclosure  separates  the  buildings  of  the  palace  from 
the  bazaar.  There  are  in  this  open  space  two  large  tanks, 
at  which  camels,  horses,  mules,  and  men  are  always  drinking. 
Upon  a  high  stand  a  very  long,  huge  cannon  is  placed,  which 
is  said  to  have  been  captured  in  India,  and  brought  as  a  tro¬ 
phy  from  Delhi;  but  this  is  probably  untrue. 

Second  only  to  the  British  Legation  in  importance  is  the 
establishment  of  the  Indo-European  Telegraph  in  Teheran. 
From  the  Persian  capital  to  London  the  telegraph  is  a  pri¬ 
vate  enterprise  ;  from  Teheran  through  Central  and  Southern 
Persia  to  Bushire  and  by  the  Persian  Gulf,  to  Kurrachee  and 
the  chief  centres  of  India,  the  wires  belong  to  the  Indian 
Government.  There  is  an  arrangement  by  which  the  Shah’s 


THE  INDO-PEESIAN  TELEGEAPH.  193 

Government  has  the  use  of  a  wire  in  Persia.  The  mainte¬ 
nance  of  this  telegraph  engages  a  considerable  staff,  of  which 
the  local  director  is  Major  Murdoch  Smith,  R.E.,  who,  with 
much  advantage  to  the  British  public,  has  bestowed  some  of 
his  leisure  hours  in  collecting  specimens  of  the  ancient  art¬ 
work  of  Persia,  with  funds  provided  by  the  Council  of  the 
South  Kensington  Museum.  Many  of  the  articles  which  are 
now  in  the  Museum  were  kindly  shown  to  us  by  Major  Smith 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Teheran.  In  the  work  of  the  Persian 
telegraph,  he  is  assisted  by  a  staff  of  superintendents,  inspect¬ 
ors,  and  clerks,  whose  health  is  cared  for  by  three  medical 
men,  the  chief  of  whom.  Dr.  Baker,  is  resident  in  Teheran, 
his  two  colleagues  being  placed,  one  in  Ispahan,  the  other  in 
Shiraz.  The  testing  -  stations,  most  of  which  we  visited  in 
passing  through  Persia,  are  generally  placed  about  a  hundred 
miles  apart,  and  the  chief  duty  of  the  clerks  at  these  stations 
is  to  correspond  at  stated  hours  in  morning,  afternoon,  and 
evening  with  the  men  on  duty  at  the  stations  on  either  side, 
in  order  to  see  that  no  break  has  occurred  in  the  line,  and 
that  all  is  in  good  working  order.  If  the  connection  is  bro¬ 
ken,  the  native  horsemen  attached  to  each  station  are  at  once 
sent  out  to  ride  along  the  course  of  the  wires  till  they  reach 
the  fracture.  As  the  break  must  be  known  to  two  stations, 
the  horsemen  are  sometimes  sent  out  from  both,  and  meet 
where  the  repair  is  needed.  The  fracture  of  the  wires  by  de¬ 
sign  or  malice  is  of  very  rare  occurrence ;  but  they  are  bro¬ 
ken  now  and  then  by  bullets.  Persians  are  ambitious  of  skill 
in  rifle-shooting ;  and  in  the  plains,  where  natural  targets  are 
scarce,  they  find  in  the  earthenware  insulators  of  the  tele¬ 
graph  a  most  inviting  object.  Sometimes  the  poles  are  over¬ 
thrown  by  storms  of  wind,  and  sometimes  the  wires  are  bro¬ 
ken  and  the  poles  borne  down  to  the  ground  by  the  weight 
of  frozen  snow  which  collects  in  thick,  icy  bands  from  pole 
to  pole.  We  were  much  indebted  —  as  every  English  trav- 

9 


194 


TUPwOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


eler  by  the  same  path  must  be — to  the  Government  officers 
of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  persons  whom  we  met  with  in 
Teheran  was  the  Rev.  Robert  Bruce,  the  only  English  mis¬ 
sionary — in  fact,  the  only  English  clergyman  in  Persia.  He 
is  stationed  at  Ispahan,  and  we  accepted  an  invitation  to  stay 
in  his  house  during  our  visit  to  that  central  city  of  Persia. 
When  we  met  with  Mr.  Bruce  in  Teheran,  he  was  returning 
from  England  to  his  duties  in  connection  with  the  Church 

O 

Missionary  Society.  In  the  Persian  capital  he  was  in  great 
request  for  the  baptism  of  the  babies  born  during  the  long 
time  which  had  elapsed  since  the  visit  of  an  English  clergy¬ 
man.  An  exception  to  the  rule  of  other  legations,  religion 
is  not  represented  in  that  of  Great  Britain. 


A  TAKHT-I-KAWAIS'. 


195 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Teheran. — Snow  in  November. — Our  Servant,  Kazera. — Getting  a  Takht-i- 
rawan. — Abd  -ullah,  the  Carpenter. — Preparing  for  the  Koad. — A  Charvo- 
dar’s  “Beard.” — Black  Monday. — Trying  the  Takbt-i-rawan. — Loading 
the  Caravan, — Servant’s  Merchandise, — ‘  ‘  Zood  !  Zood  — Leaving  Tehe¬ 
ran. — The  Road  to  Ispahan. — Seeing  the  Khanoum. — Shah  Abd-ul-Azim. 
— Moollahs  on  the  Road. — On  to  Kinaragird. — The  Great  Salt  Desert. — 
Pul-i-delak. — A  Salt  River. — A  Negro  Dervish. — Salt-water  Soup. — A 
Windy  Lodging. 

I  WAS  slowly  recovering  from  a  fever — taking  quinine,  as 
every  one  does  at  some  time  or  other  in  Persia — when  we 
determined  to  set  out  for  Ispahan.  Already  the  snow  was 
creeping  down  the  mountains,  and  seemed,  in  spite  of  the 
noonday  sun,  to  be  firmly  established  for  the  winter  within 
about  two  thousand  feet  of  the  plain  of  Teheran.  Though 
the  days  were  hot,  the  nights  were  becoming  cold. 

The  first  thing  was  the  construction  of  a  takht-i-rawan. 
Servants  brought  in  reports  of  takht-i-rawans  for  sale.  A 
khan  had  one  to  dispose  of,  in  which  two  of  his  ladies  had 
just  arrived  from  the  sacred  city  of  Meshed.  I  went  to  look 
at  it.  Through  the  narrow  streets,  between  brown  walls  of 
mud,  I  followed  two  of  the  khan’s  servants  to  the  outskirts  of 
Teheran.  In  a  small  yard,  surrounded  by  walls,  half  of  which 
lay  in  a  dusty  heap  under  the  takht-i-rawan,  I  examined  the 
conveyance.  It  was  coarsely  decorated  wdth  somewhat  inde¬ 
cent  figures  ;  it  had  no  windows,  was  simply  a  box,  like  an 
elongated  Saratoga  trunk,  built  on  two  long  poles,  and  had 
seen  so  much  service  that  it  was  none  too  strong  for  a  jour¬ 
ney  of  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  Shiraz.  The  French 
Secretary  of  Legation  heard  of  our  want.  His  wife  had  just 


196  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

arrived  from  Astrabad  in  a  takht-i-rawan,  but  the  poles  of  his 
conveyance  were  decidedly  rotten.  It  was  better  to  have  one 
made,  even  though  we  must  leave  it,  after  thirty  days’  jour¬ 
ney,  in  Shiraz.  To  travel  in  a  takht-i-rawan  from  Shiraz  to 
Bushire  is  well  known  throughout  Persia  to  be  impossible. 

Amons:  the  servants  in  the  household  of  Mr.  Laessoe  was 
one  Kazem,  who  urged  us  to  engage  him  for  the  journey  to 
Bushire,  and  presented  a  written  character  from  the  Hon. 
Evelyn  Ellis,  whom  he  had  accompanied  in  the  same  journey 
two  or  three  years  before.  Mr.  Lsessoe  very  kindly  consent¬ 
ed,  and  we  at  once  placed  this  bright-eyed,  active,  intelligent 
little  Persian  at  the  head  of  our  arrangements.  In  all  things 
Kazem  did  his  part  well.  His  first  business  was  to  introduce 
a  carpenter,  to  be  instructed  in  the  most  improved  plan  of  a 
takht-i-rawan.  Abd-ullah  was  the  carpenter  introduced  by 
Kazem.  We  were  told  that  Kazem  was  sure  to  have  made 
an  arrangement,  after  the  manner  of  Persian  servants,  with 
Abd-ullah,  by  which  the  latter  was  to  give  him  ten  per  cent, 
upon  the  price.  This  is  no  doubt  the  way  in  which  Persian 
servants  increase  their  gains ;  but  it  does  not  come  to  much. 
The  method  is  weU  known,  and  it  is  probable  Europeans 
would  not  obtain  articles  at  a  lower  price  if  they  purchased 
for  themselves.  The  carpenter,  though  the  picture  of  abject 
humility,  as  he  stood  at  the  edge  of  our  carpet  with  meekly 
folded  hands,  was  a  well-dressed  man :  his  turban  was  of  spot¬ 
less  white,  his  robe  of  red,  his  trousers  blue.  Together  we 
set  out  to  see  the  takht-i-rawan  at  the  British  Legation,  which 
was  better  than  the  native  carriages  in  that  between  the  seats 
it  had  a  well,  like  that  of  a  European  carriage,  for  the  feet, 
drawers  beneath  the  seats  for  stores,  and  glass  windows. 

.  Abd-ullah  looked  it  carefully  over,  notched  its  measurements 
on  a  piece  of  stick,  and  entered  into  an  agreement  to  make 
one  like  it  for  a  specified  sum,  money  to  buy  wood  being  paid 
at  once. 


PEEPAKmG  POR  THE  ROAD.  197 

This  is  quite  usual  in  all  transactions.  When  he  came  to 
the  iron-work,  he  wanted  money  to  buy  the  iron.  No  trades¬ 
man  seems  to  have  any  capital,  but  every  one  has  a  seal, 
which,  after  most  careful  scrutiny  of  every  letter,  he  will  affix 
to  agreements  and  notes  of  advances.  Persians  are  fond  of 
written  agreements,  and  these  seem  more  common  than  in 
England,  where  no  one  would  think  of  having  an  agreement 
for  so  trifling  a  piece  of  work.  I  drew  up  an  agreement  in 
English  for  the  building  of  the  takht-i-rawan ;  it  was  read  to 
Abd-ullah  by  an  interpreter  of  the  Legation,  and  the  carpen¬ 
ter,  with  many  bows,  almost  prostrations,  scaled  it,  and  re¬ 
ceived  part  of  the  sum  agreed  to  be  paid  for  the  carriage. 
He  had  bound  himself  to  complete  the  takht-i-rawan  in  nine 
days.  During  this  time,  we  ransacked  the  bazaars  for  stores 
and  equipment  of  all  sorts.  You  are  neither  of  you  strong 
enough  for  such  a  journey,”  said  the  good  medicine-man  of 
the  British  in  the  Persian  capital.  “The  cold,  snowy  blasts 
are  such  as  you  can  not  conceive  from  English  experience; 
and  your  lodging  will  be  the  most  wretched,  and  exposed  to 
the  same  temperature,  to  say  nothing  of  the  dangers  of  the 
road,  especially  for  you,  who  have  no  English-speaking  serv¬ 
ants,  and  who  can  not  talk  Persian.”  We  laughed  at  his 
fears,  and  told  him  we  had  made  some  progress  in  Persian ; 
could  ask  for  horses,  and  for  any  sort  of  food ;  that  we  had 
tracings  of  the  route  enlarged,  and  marked  with  the  name 
and  distance  of  every  station.  At  his  suggestion,  our  iron 
stirrups  were  covered  with  thick  felt  of  camel’s  hair,  to  pre¬ 
vent  the  risk  of  frost  in  the  feet ;  and  we  bought  felts,  nearly 
half  an  inch  thick,  to  nail  up  in  the  door- ways  of  the  unpro¬ 
tected  hovels  in  which  we  must  sleep.  Among  a  score  of 
other  things,  Kazem  strongly  recommended  a  bag  of  picked 
and  broken  walnuts  mixed  with  green  raisins.  We  had 
double  counterpanes,  thickly  lined  with  cotton  wool.  Our 
kind  friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Laessolh  ordered  the  baking  of  half 


198 


THROUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


a  dozen  large  loaves  of  bread  in  English  fashion ;  and  when 
the  takht-i-rawan  was  built,  we  sent  to  the  bazaar  for  a  mule¬ 
teer.  Up  came  a  man  seated  on  a  leggy  little  chestnut  horse 
— a‘^yaboo,”as  these  much  -  enduring  and  sure-footed  ani¬ 
mals  are  called.  This  is  the  special  name  for  the  horse  of 
a  charvodar.  Sometimes  it  carries  a  traveler,  sometimes  the 
muleteer  himself,  and  at  other  times  it  bears  a  load  of  goods, 
and,  with  jingling  bells  attached  to  every  part  of  its  harness, 
gayly  leads  the  caravan.  This  charvodar  was  a  short,  old 
man,  with  sunken  eyes  and  gloomy,  fanatical  aspect.  His 
beard,  his  hands,  and  his  feet  were  dyed  deep-red  with  khen- 
na.  He  hitched  his  waist-belt  of  camel’s  hair  rope,  straight¬ 
ened  his  long,  loose  robe  of  blue  cotton,  and  salaamed  when 
he  saw  us  standing  in  the  door-way.  He  sat  on  his  “  yaboo  ” 
inside  the  door  while  we  discussed  the  proposed  journey. 
“The  sahib  wants  to  go  to  Ispahan said  our  friend.  “In- 
shallah  ”  -(“By  the  will  of  Allah  !”)  was  the  reply  of  the  char¬ 
vodar.  “  He  wants  horses  and  mules.” — “  I  have  horses  and 
twelve  mules,  but  I  can  load  any  the  sahib  does  not  want 
with  merchandise.” 

At  last  the  price  was  settled — so  many  krans  for  each  ani¬ 
mal,  the  two  in  the  takht-i-rawan  to  be  paid  for  as  four ;  and 
then  came  the  question  of  advance  and  security.  “  My  beard 
is  in  your  hands,”  said  the  charvodar,  meaning  that  if  we  ad¬ 
vanced  money  after  he  had  sealed  an  agreement,  we  could 
punish  him  if  he  did  not  go.  “ISTo,”  urged  our  friend,  in 
the  Persian  phrase ;  “  the  sahib’s  beard  will  be  in  your  hands, 
and  you  may  go  off  to  Ispahan :  leave  saddle-bags  and  cloths 
as  security,  and  then  we  shall  have  your  beard  in  our  hands.” 
He  was  sitting  on  saddle-bags,  which  he  at  once  threw  down 
as  a  pledge  of  service  to  Kazem.  Then  as  to  the  time  of  de¬ 
parture,  we  declared  that  we  must  set  out  on  Monday ;  but 
the  charvodar  said  “N^o,”  he  would  not  go  on  Monday.  He 
was  quite  ready,  but  it  was  not  a  lucky  day.  He  would  go 


.TRYING  THE  TAKHT-I-EAWAN. 


199 


on  the  afternoon  of  Mondajj  and  put  up  for  the  night  at  Shah 
Abd-ul-Azim,  whose  shrine  is  held  sacred  by  all  Persian  trav¬ 
elers.  But  “  it  was  not  good,”  he  said,  to  begin  a  journey  on 
the  morning  of  Monday,  and  as  we  determined  to  reach  Ki- 
naragird — a  distance  of  eight-and-twenty  miles— on  the  first 
evening  of  our  journey,  we  sent  him  away.  Another  came 
— a  tall,  dark  man,  with  bare,  hairy  legs  showing  beneath  a 
short  green  tunic.  He  had  a  skull  flattened  like  that  of  a 
wild  animal,  and  a  step  like  a  camel,  so  long,  and  noiseless, 
and  untiring.  Equally  inexorable  as  to  Monday,  we  agreed 
with  this  man  to  start  on  Tuesday,  the  23d  of  November. 

The  next  work  was  to  try  the  mules  in  the  takht-i-rawan, 
which  was  declared,  on  handling  it,  to  be  a  very  heavy  one. 
We  had  already  purchased  harness,  which  for  a  takht-i-rawan 
is  of  peculiar  construction,  provided  with  very  strong  sad¬ 
dle  straps  and  stout  hooks  of  iron,  w^hich  are  passed  through 
rings  upon  the  extremities  of  the  shafts  of  the  carriage.  The 
Persians  never  lift  all  together,  as  European  laborers  are 
taught  to  do,  and  the  consequence  is  that  half  a  dozen  men 
are  required  to  do  the  work  of  two.  All  called  loudly  on 
“Allah”  as  they  lifted  the  points  of  the  front  shafts  to  the 
back  of  a  mule.  The  hooking  was  accomplished  with  diffi¬ 
culty,  while  the  carriage  rested  on  the  iron-shod  points  of  the 
rear  shafts;  the  second  mule  was  then  placed  between  them, 
they  were  lifted  and  hooked,  and  the  takht-i-rawan  was  then 
fairly  arranged.  But  the  motion  was  violent,  for  the  hinder 
mule  resented  the  position  of  his  face  against  the  back  boards 
of  the  carriage,  and  kicked  out  until  I  feared  the  harness 
would  give  way.  Yet  he  was  compelled  to  move  on,  for  as 
his  hoofs  plunged  wildly  in  the  air,  he  was  dragged  awk¬ 
wardly  forward  by  the  front  mule,  who  of  course  knew  and 
could  see  nothing  of  his  colleague’s  objection,  and  soon  there 
were  concert  and  progress.  Of  course  the  experiment  inter¬ 
ested  half  Teheran ;  and  when  the  charvodar  expressed,  in  the 


200 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN". 


Persian  equivalent,  that  the  mules  “  went  beautiful,”  which 
was  the  declared  opinion  of  Mr.  Thomson’s  servant,  who  was 
passing,  there  was  a  highly  enthusiastic  and  gratified  crowd 
to  witness  the  performance. 

Where  are  all  the  things  to  go?  I  look  with  dismay  at 
the  baggage  while  we  are  waiting  for  the  mules  at  sunrise. 
The  back  seat  of  the  takht-i-rawan,  to  be  occupied  by  my 
wife,  is  padded  with  a  wool  mattress,  which  covers  the  back 
and  sides,  and  is  held  in  position  by  straps  at  the  corners ; 
pillows  and  a  rug  are  used  for  cushions,  and  on  the  opposite 
seat  the  rest  of  the  bedding  is  secured  in  cotton  bags.  But 
there  are  bedsteads  and  boxes,  tables  and  camp-stools,  mat¬ 
ting  and  carpets,  and  a  heap  of  pots  and  pans.  Kazem  has 
been  marketing,  and  has  bought  half  a  sheep,  a  quantity  of 
potatoes  (such  as  in  England  would  be  given  to  pigs),  some 
large  onions,  huge  turnips,  coarse  carrots,  and  enormous  cab¬ 
bages.  There  are,  besides,  some  mysterious  packages,  which 
he  confesses  are  merchandise.  He  is  going  to  do  a  little 
trading  on  his  own  account  by  the  way,  at  our  expense  as 
regards  his  time,  and  as  regards  the  carriage  upon  the  backs 
of  our  mules.  The  extra  weight  is  not  great,  and  his  excuses 
are  so  well  made  that  we  readily  forgive  him.  The  practice 
is  very  common  with  Persian  servants,  and  has  this  advan¬ 
tage  :  that  when  it  is  known  to  their  master  they  can  never 
grumble  about  the  trouble  of  loading,  nor  complain  if  their 
seat  is  not  quite  comfortable,  though  to  make  it  uncomfort¬ 
able  would  appear  difficult;  for  if  they  are  raised  by  saddle¬ 
bags  and  bundles  to  an  awkward  height  above  the  mule’s 
back,  they  seem  to  be  just  as  happy.  The  load  is  well  se¬ 
cured,  the  softest  things  placed  on  the  top,  where  the  rider 
sits,  his  legs  swinging  on  either  side  with  all  the  regularity 
of  a  pendulum. 

It  is,  as  I  have  said,  eight-and-twenty  miles  from  Teheran 
to  Kinaragird,  and,  traveling  as  fast  as  possible — that  is,  three 


MEETING  A  COFFIN. 


201 


and  a  half  miles  an  hour — we  could  hardly  get  there  before 
sunset.  ^^Zood!  zoodP^  (''Quick!  quick!”)  we  called  to  the 
chattering  servants  and  muleteers.  At  last  the  takht-i-rawan 
has  received  the  English  lady,  who  from  north  to  south  in 
Persia  is  always  an  object  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the 
population ;  and  the  charvodar,  with  his  abominable  whip  of 
iron  chain  girded  round  his  waist,  leads  out  the  first  mule 
by  a  halter.  We  straggle  after  the  takht-i-rawan,  a  string 
of  loaded  mules  and  riders,  surrounded  with  servants,  some 
mounted  and  others  on  foot,  the  servants  of  the  house  attend¬ 
ing  us,  in  Persian  fashion,  not  only  to  the  door,  but  for  some 
distance  toward  the  gate  of  the  city.  After  going  with  us  a 
few  hundred  yards,  they  kiss  our  hands,  accept  a  present,  and 
depart,  salaaming  most  impressively. 

In  Persia,  travelers  by  caravan  rarely  or  never  set  out  alone. 
It  is  the  established  rule  for  some  of  their  friends  to  accom¬ 
pany  them,  if  only  for  a  little  way.  It  is  well  at  such  times 
to  avoid  sneezing,  or  falling,  or  any  other  thing  which  the  most 
superstitious  of  muleteers  can  interpret  into  a  bad  omen. 
Sometimes  these  men  will  take  days  to  recover  from  the  sad¬ 
dening  effects  of  a  maladroit  sneeze.  On  our  path  to  the  Is¬ 
pahan  gate  of  Teheran,  we  met  a  coffin  in  a  way  which,  I  be¬ 
lieve,  was  not  exactly  as  it  should  have  been.  I  do  not  allude 
to  the  arrangement  of  the  dead  body,  which  seemed  indiffer¬ 
ent  almost  to  carelessness.  It  was  inclosed  in  a  long,  light 
box  very  much  like  those  in  which  French  eggs  are  shipped 
for  England,  and  the  whole,  covered  with  white  cotton,  was 
slung  across  the;  back  of  a  mule,  and  swung,  sometimes  high, 
sometimes  low,  with  the  motion  of  the  animal.  In  some  parts 
of  Persia  caravans  are  met  with,  conveying  dead  bodies  to  the 
sacred  soil  of  holy,  cities  for  interment.  Before  the  Turkish 
Government  declined  to  receive  such  imports,  the  road  from 
Teheran  through  ^Bagdad  to  Kerbela  was  much  frequented 
by  these  mortuary  caravans,  and  the  work  of  embalmment 

9* 


202 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


was  either  imperfect  or  unattempted,  for  the  smell  of  these 
funeral  processions  is  described  as  having  been  most  horrible. 

The  gates  of  Teheran  are  a  reality,  and  the  belated  traveler 
may  knock  in  vain ;  but  the  walls  in  the  direction  of  Ispahan, , 
as  well  as  in  that  of  Kasveen,  are,  for  the  most  part,  not  walls 
— nothing  but  heaps  of  earth  thrown  from  a  trench.  The  Is¬ 
pahan  gate,  like  most  others,  is  faced  with  glazed  bricks,  col¬ 
ored  blue  and  yellow,  the  main  structure  being  surmounted 
with  quaint  pinnacles  of  no  particular  shape,  which  have,  after 
the  manner  of  all  high  buildings  in  Persia,  short,  thick  poles 
standing  out  at  right  angles,  the  ends  built  into  the  brick¬ 
work  so  as  to  support  a  ladder.  Looking  back  at  Teheran, 
as  we  pass  through  the  gate,  we  can  see  nothing  but  dried 
mud,  and  all  is  of  the  color  of  dried  mud.  The  plane-trees, 
still  green  with  lingering  leaves,  rise  over  houses  of  which 
nothinor  is  seen  but  the  bare,  blank  walls.  If  the  Persians 
were  African  savages,  the  general  aspect  of  their  chief  town 
could  hardly  be  more  barbarous  and  wretched. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  road  outside  the  gate;  there  are 
tracks  leading  over  the  plain  in  every  direction.  Like  most 
of  the.  Persian  plains,  that  in  which  Teheran  is  situated  is 
stony;  and,  in  the  direction  of  Ispahan,  mules  and  camels 
have  trodden  clear  of  stones  eight  or  ten,  and  in  some  places 
fifteen  or  twenty,  parallel  paths.  Into  these  we  turn,  on  leav¬ 
ing  the  gate,  the  charvodar  leading  the  front  mule  of  the 
takht-i-rawan,  and  one  of  his  assistant  gholams  bringing  up 
the  rear,  his  chief  business  being  to  see  that  no  part  of  the 
load  of  any  of  the  baggage  mules  falls  off  and  is  left  in  the 
desert. 

'Now  and  then  one  of  the  mules  bearing  the  takht-i-rawan 
stumbles,  and  the  carriage  is  shot  forward,  to  the  very  great 
discomfort  of  the  occupier.  It  is  common,  when  caravans 
meet  on  the  plains,  to  indicate,  by  holding  up  the  hand,  to 
which  side  the  indi-eator  will  direct  his  troop;  and  those 


SEEING  THE  KHANOUM, 


203 


whom  we  met  appeared,  when  they  reached  us,  to  be  happy 
or  unsuccessful,  according  as  they  passed  upon  the  open  or 
closed  side  of  the  takht-i-rawan.  The  desire  to  see  a  “feran- 
ghi  ”  lady  is,  however,  always  mingled  with  an  evident  feel¬ 
ing  that  prying  is  both  impertinent  and  improper.  An  En¬ 
glishman  may  do  much  as  he  pleases  in  Persia.  He  must  be 
very  faithless  before  people  will  hesitate  to  take  his  word  as 
the  best  security — as  much  better  surety  than  any  fellow-coun¬ 
tryman  can  offer.  An  Englishman  is  obeyed  and  honored 
in  the  same  way,  but  the  English  lady  is  a  puzzle.  The  Per¬ 
sian  can  not  quite  comprehend  the  union  of  what  he  acknowl¬ 
edges  to  be  severe  propriety  with  exposure  of  the  charms  of 
face,  and  with  a  manner  kindly  and  gracious  toward  men  of 
all  nations.  .  /  ■  >  ,  v 

At  noon  we  are  three  farsakhs  from  Teheran.  We  have 
been  rising  gently,  and  can  still  make  out  one  or  two  colored 
domes  amidst  the  green  trees,  an  oasis  in  the  desert-like  plain 
we  are  traversing.  Behind  the  city  rise  the  Elburz  Mount¬ 
ains,  with  snowy  summits  all  along  the  ridge,  from  the  per¬ 
petual  white  of  lofty  Demavend  to  the  point  where  the  hills 
slope  to  the  Karij  Palace.  All  around,  indeed,  are  mountains 
and  hills,  glistening  with  snow  or  brown  with  arid  surface 
beneath  the  glaring  sun.  The  hills  are  lowest  of  all  before  us 
in  the  distance,  which  we  must  surmount  before  sunset.  On 
our  left,  the  groves  of  Teheran  seem  extended  to  include  the 
shrine  of  Shah  Abd-ul-Azim,  the  gilded  cupola  of  which  shines 
brightest  of  all  objects  in  the  landscape.  There  is  a  ruined 
hovel  on  the  plain,  which  casts  a  sharp  shadow.  In  this  Ka- 

*  I  have  spelled  this  word  as  it  is  pronounced.  It  is  sometimes  spelled 
“  parasangs” —  the  Persian  measure  of  distance,  varying  in  our  experience 
from  three  miles  to  four.  A  farsakh  is,  by  some  who  are  well  acquainted 
with  Persia,  held  to  mean  an  hour’s  journey  for  a  loaded  mule,  which  would 
account  for  the  farsakhs  being  shorter  in  a  difficult  country  than  upon  the 
plains. 


204  '  THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

zeni  has  already  arranged  a  seat  and  spread  a  carpet.  The 
takht-i-rawan  is  unhooked  and  lowered,  a  work  which  engages 
every  hand,  and  the  mules  drink  at  a  stream,  which  is  the  jus¬ 
tification  of  this  point  in  the  plain  as  a  stopping-place.  The 
muleteers  have  a  luncheon  of  bread  and  a  poor  sort  of  cream- 
cheese.  Kazera  produces  a  bottle  of  good  wine  and  a  cold 
fowl,  which  looks  as  if  it  had  been  carried  round  the  world 
since  it  was  cooked,  after  a  life  of  semi-starvation.  Our  horses 
and  mules  wander  where  they  will,  which  is  not  far ;  and  at 
the  end  of  half  an  hour,  at  a  sign  from  us,  the  caravan  is 
made  up. 

Miles  before  us,  when  we  resume  our  journey,  near  the 
foot  of  the  hills  w^e  are^approaching,  there  are  black  specks 
like  flies  on  the  plain,  some  twenty  or  thirty,  which  are  evi¬ 
dently  loaded  mules.  We  overtake  them  at  a  ruined  build¬ 
ing,  a  crumbling  caravanserai,  in  which  they  are  going  to  rest 
for  the  night.  The  mules  are  carrying  two  moollahs,  their 
wives,  and  households ;  the  animals  belong  to  our  charvodar, 
who  wishes  us  to  stay  under  this  ruined  mud-wall,  over  which 
lizards  are  coursing  in  scores.  The  accommodation  is  per¬ 
haps  as  good  as  we  shall  meet  with  at  Kinaragird.  If  this 
had  been  our  first  excursion  in  Persia,  we  should  have  been 
astonished  at  the  suggestion  of  such  a  lodging  as  this,  which 
was  only  better  than  the  open  plain,  inasmuch  as  there  was  a 
ruined  wall  which,  if  it  had  been  provided  with  gates,  would 
have  been  an  inclosure.  We  had,  however,  been  advised  to 
stay  nowhere  but  in  the  chapar-khanahs  marked  upon  the 
chart  which  Mr.  Preece,  of  the  Telegraph  Service,  had  kindly 
made  out  for  us  in  Teheran,  and  therefore  determined  to  push 
on  across  the  hills  to  Kinaragird.  It  was  certainly  an  advan¬ 
tage  that  we  could  not  fully  understand  the  language  in  which 
the  charvodar  and  all  our  train  vigorously  expressed  their 
objections.  We, however,  refused  to  give  way,  and  drove  the 
caravan  onward  over  the  brown  hills,  which  were  without  a 


ON  TO  KINAEAGIED. 


205 


sign  of  vegetation.  But  afterward  we  had  reason  to  believe 
that  the  distance  was  farther  than  that  marked  upon  our 
guide  map;  and  when  we  looked  down  from  the  summit  of 
the  hills  upon  the  Salt  Desert  in  which  the  station  at  Kinara- 
gird  appeared  a  distant  dot,  it  was  gilded  with  the  rays  of 
the  setting  sun;  and  in  Persia  there  is  no  twilight.  Just  at 
this  moment  my  horse  refused  to  move,  which  the  charvodar 
explained  was  owing  to  the  discomfort  of  the  English  saddle, 
to  the  pressure  of  which  he  was  unused.  I  had  therefore  to 
walk  nearly  two  farsakhs  into  Kinaragird,  which  "we  did  not 
reach  until  the  moonlight  was  our  only  guide  upon  the  bor¬ 
der  of  that  immense  desert,  which  extends  for  hundreds  of 
miles  to  the  confines  of  Afghanistan.  We  had  entered  upon 
the  Great  Salt  Desert  of  Persia,  which  occupies  part  of  the 
centre  and  a  great  portion  of  the  north-east  of  the  country, 
in  which  there  is  no  vegetation  or  good  water.  We  had 
to  cross  a  corner  of  this  very  desolate  region,  in  which  we 
should  not  see  a  tree  or  a  blade  of  grass  for  days.  The  sur¬ 
face  of  this  desert  is  in  many  places  so  thickly  inci  usted  with 
salt  that  it  looks  as  if  there  had  been  a  slight  fall  of  snow  in 
these  spots  ;  the  streams  are  brackish  and  unwholesome,  nei¬ 
ther  good  for  man  nor  beast.  There  is  no  fire-wood.  Our 
mules  carry  sufficient  for  ourj96>^  au  feu  until  we  shall  have 
reached  the  place  where  in  the  desert  there  are  a  few  dried 
camel-thorns,  of  which  some  Persian  boy  will  collect  a  don¬ 
key-load  for  half  a  kran.  At  Kinaragird  the  water  was  bare¬ 
ly  drinkable ;  the  next  day  it  would  be  worse. 

Ko  imaginary  picture  can  exceed  the  desolation  of  the 
scene  on  any  part  of  the  road  between  Kinaragird  and  Haus 
Sultan,  our  next  stopping-place.  Kot  a  drop  of  water  for  our 
animals  from  morning  till  night;  not  a  shadow  in  which  to 
escape  from  the  glaring  light.  In  the  morning  the  mirage 
played  before  us,  dividing  the  mountains  from  us  by  the  sem¬ 
blance  of  a  lake.  To  watch  the  changing  forms  of  this  illu- 


20G 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sion  was  our  only  pastime.  On  the  third  evening  we  reached 
Pul-i-delak,  a  station  like  the  others,  where  there  was  nothing 
but  the  chapar-khanah  and  a  caravanserai.  At  Kinaragird, 
our  bala-khanah  had  doors,  though  in  these  there  were  holes 
large  enough  to  put  one’s  hand  through;  but  at  Pul-i-delak 
there  were  no  doors,  and,  when  we  entered  it,  every  corner  of 
our  apartment  was  visible  from  the  plain.  We  had  to  close 
it  up  with  our  hangings  of  thick  felt,  but  the  openings  were 
so  numerous  that  we  were  forced  to  borrow  empty  sacks 
from  the  charvodar.  From  the  chapar-khanah  the  ground 
sloped  to  a  stream,  of  which  the  waters  were,  yellow  as  those 
of  the  Tiber  after  a  heavy  flood,  and  nauseous  with  a  flavor 
of  sulphur  and  Epsom  salts.  The  river  had  once  been  cross¬ 
ed  with  a  substantial  bridge,  but  now  four  of  the  brick  arches 
were  broken  and  ruined,  and  the  roadway  severed.  ^Nobody 
minds.  The  consequence  is  that  in  winter,  and  whenever 
there  is  much  water,  every  caravan  has  .  to  go  about  a  mile 
out  of  the  way,  in  leaving  or  approaching  Pul-i-delak,  up  or 
down  the  stream  to  a  suitable  ford. 

At  the  river  I  met  one  of  our  gholams  bearing  a  pitcher  of 
this  fluid  for  our  consumption,  and  had  no  pleasant  anticipa¬ 
tions  of  the  soup  or  tea  to  be  made  wuth  it.  The  moollahs 
and  their  party,  with  one  or  two  other,  caravans,  had  arrived 
at  the  caravanserai,  the  door  of  which  I  passed  in  returning  to 
the  chapar-khanah.  There  was  a  group  of  Persians  lounging 
about  after  the  day’s  journey;  they  were  eating  pomegran¬ 
ates,  walnuts,  and  raisins.  Two  of  them  advanced  toward 
me, both  with  the  palms  of  their  hands  held  together.before 
them  as  people  would  do  who  were  trying  to  carry  water 
without  a  vessel.  One  held  in  this  way  a  small  pomegran¬ 
ate,  and  the  other  about  two  dozen  raisins,  which  they  pre¬ 
sented  to  me.  We  entered  the  caravanserai  together.  In 
the  door-way  sat  a  dervish,  a  negro,  ugly  and  fierce,  who  at 
this  hour  of  sunset  was  proclaiming  continually  in  loud,  harsh 


A  WINDY  LODGING. 


207 


tones,  the  greatness  and  the  unity  of  Allah,  the  all-powerful, 
the  merciful.  He  spit,  and  cleared  himself  visibly,  and  most 
impolitely,  from  the  contamination  of  my  presence;  and 
when  I  smiled  and  bowed,  pretending  to  receive  his  curses  as 
blessings,  his  expressions  of  disgust  were  violently  renewed. 
Inside,  there  were  the  usual  scenes  and  noises ;  in  two  or 
three  arches,  a  clatter  and  chatter  of  women  and  children, 
hardly  concealed  by  suspended  carpets;  in  another,  half  a 
dozen  muleteers  sat  around  the  precious  blaze  of  a  single  log, 
W'hich  warmed  their  evening  mess  of  bread  and  sour  goat’s 
milk.  In  the  centre,  the  donkeys  brayed,  the  mules  rolled, 
and  occasionally  fought,  all  of  course  carrying  their  heavy 
pack-saddles,  and  some  noisy  with  the  discordant  music  of 
suspended  bells.  In  the  caravanserai  I  heard  Kazem’s  cry, 
“  Sham,  sahib  P’’  (“  Dinner,  sir !”)  and,  'wondering  how  soup 
made  with  the  water  of  the  Pul-i-delak  River  would  taste, 
mounted  to  the  bala-khanah. 

At  night-fall  the  cold  was  so  great,  the  wind  so  piercing, 
that  I  had  to  make  excursions  in  search  of  big  stones  to  place 
upon  the  ends  of  our  doors  of  camel’s  -  hair  cloth.  But  the 
wind  drives  in  alb  directions  through  our  little  chamber.  If 
any  poor  were  so  lodged  in  such  a  night  in  England,  the 
boasted  civilization  ”  of  our  country  would  be  upheld  to 
scorn  in  journals  of  ‘largest”  and  “world-wide”  circulation. 
But  in  bed,  if  one  is  neither  cold  nor  hungry,  the  freest  ven¬ 
tilation  is  not  often  hurtful,  and  we  were  encouraged  with 
the  prospect  of  reaching  Koom  next  evening — one  of  the  two 
holy  cities  of  Persia,  to  which  the  shrine  of  Fatima,  sister  of 
the  eighth  Imam  Reza,  attracts  thousands  of  faithful  Shi’ahs. 


208 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Koom.— Approach  to  the  Holy  City.— The  Golden  Dome.— Koom  Bazaar. 
— The  Governor’s  Procession. — The  Itizad-el-Dowleh.  —  Mirza  Teki 
Khan.  —  Disgraced  by  the  Shah. — Order  for  his  Assassination. — The 
Shah’s  Contrition,  —  A  Visit  to  the  Governor.  —  A  Coat  of  Honor.  — 
Pipes  of  Ceremony.  —  Mesjid-i-Juma. — Tomb  of  Feth-Ali-Shah. — The’ 
Shrine  of  Patima. — A  Pretended  Pilgrim. — Reception  at  the  Mosque. — 
Not  allowed  to  Enter. — A  Temperance  City. — Takht-i-rawan  in  Bazaar. 
— The  Road  to  Sin-sin. — ^View  from  the  Chapar-khanah. 

Sometimes  in  Western  lands  one  is  reminded  of  Oriental 
scenes.  “  This  is  like  a  bit  of  India,”  the  retired  proconsul 
is  heard  to  say  in  Kent  or  Surrey.  But  just  as  there  are 
some  richly  verdured  scenes,  purely  English,  which  can  not 
be  matched,  so  there  are  others,  always  more  or  less  arid, 
which  are  purely  and  entirely  Oriental.  One  never  can  for¬ 
get,  one  will  never  be  reminded  in  any  part  of  England,  of 
the  approach  to  Koom.  The  writings  of  Orientals  tell  us 
that  the  aim  of  their  architecture  is  harmony  with  nature ; 
that  their  swelling  domes  and  cupolas  represent  the  mount¬ 
ains,  their  minarets  the  trees,  their  roofs  the  level  of  the 
plain.  Perhaps  in  such  a  comparison  of  Oriental  architect¬ 
ure  with  nature,  the  highest  buildings  are  most  especially 
useful  in  the  landscape,  because  they  assist  the  eye  to  some 
measure  of  the  vast  space  which  is  a  chief  element  of  the  un¬ 
doubted  beauty  of  such  a  scene. 

For  days  we  had  traversed  a  plain  of  unvarying  brown; 
and  even  the  muleteers,  to  whose  untiring  tread  all  ground 
seems  alike,  broke  into  songs  as  they  approached  the  holy 
city.  ^^Manzil,  manz-i-i-i-l  ”  (rest,  rest),  they  chanted,  rolling 
the  word  in  the  dirge -like  monotone  of  Persian  song  from 


APPROACH  TO  ROOM. 


209 


one  to  the  other,  from  end  to  end  of  the  caravan.  The  mules 
quicken  their  pace  at  si^ht  of  the  green  trees,  where  even 
they  seem  to  know  that  the  thirst  of  days  may  be  quenched 
in  sweet  waters. 

The  golden  dome  which  covers  the  remains  of  the  Imam’s 
sister,  shines  the  central  point  of  the  scene.  The  town  lies 
flat  on  the  plain,  but  it  is  set  like  a  gem  in  a  wide  surround¬ 
ing  of  hills.  To  the  right,  as  we  approach,  the  hills  appear 
red,  not  with  passing  sunlight,  but  with  natural  color  j  and 
behind  the  town,  high  above  its  domes  and  gardens,  are 
mountains,  literally  of  all  colors — snowy  at  their  highest,  red 
and  green  at  their  lowest  ranges.  Nearer,  the  scene  is  still 
more  interesting.  In  the  outskirts  of  the  town  there  is  a 
pyramid  fifty  feet  high,  the  outer  surface  resplendent  with 
blue-glazed  bricks.  This  is  the  tomb  of  Feth-Ali-Shah,  and 
it  is  only  one  of  many  curious  monuments  in  Room.  Nearer 
still,  and  much  of  the  beauty  has  suddenly  vanished.  We 
are  amidst  the  realities  of  ruined  walls  of  mud-brick  j  we  are 
enveloped  in  dust ;  the  miserable  bala-khanah,  with  blackened 
walls  and  broken  doors,  is  before  our  eyes,  and  we  are  on  the 
edge  of  the  river — the  cloaca  of  Room. 

We  were  prepared  to  stay  two  nights  in  the  holy  city,  and 
it  is  worth  while  to  nail  towels  over  the  holes  in  the  doors, 
and  to  “glaze”  the  windows  with  linen,  so  that  within  we 
may  have  a  little  light  and  less  wind.  W^hile  this  is  being 
done,  we  have  sent  a  servant  to  the  governor  with  a  letter 
from  the  Sipar  Salar,  or  Grand  Vizier,  as  Mirza  Houssein 
Rhan  is  sometimes  styled. 

As  usual,  I  perform  my  evening  toilet  upon  the  open  roof 
of  the  stables,  protected  from  observation  from  without  by 
the  mud  paraj)et.  From  this  elevation  I  can  look  down  into 
the  shallow  river  and  across  the  bridge,  where  the  road  pass¬ 
es  at  once  into  the  shade  of  the  bazaar.  This  is  the  main 
thoroughfare,  connecting  the  two  capitals  of  Persia ;  and  to 


210 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


pass  witli  a  horse  or  a  camel  through  the  bazaar  of  Koom  in 
the  busiest  hours  of  the  day  is  no  easy  matter.  But  it  has  to 
be  done,  and  in  the  doing  of  it,  without  doubt  or  question, 
the  weakest  will  go  to  the  wall.  That  is  the  way  in  Persia. 
An  unprotected  woman,  or  a  peasant  driving  a  bargain,  or  his 
donkey,  such  are  pushed  away  by  the  servants  of  some  great 
man,  tumbled  over  on  to  the  fruit  or  cotton  stalls  bordering 
the  narrow  path  which,  in  front  of  many  of  the  shops,  espe¬ 
cially  those  in  which  cotton  prints  are  sold,  is  further  con¬ 
tracted  by  one  or  two  high  stools,  on  which  purchasers  may 
sit  through  the  slow  process  of  settling  the  price  of  their 
bargains.  As  a  rule,  the  shop-keepers  are  silent,  but  the 
place  is  full  of  noise.  A  dervish  clad  in  white,  his  face  en¬ 
circled  with  long  black  hair,  screams  eulogies  of  Houssein, 
supposed  to  be  peculiarly  acceptable  w^hen  the  Mohurrem  is 
drawing  near.  A  half -naked  peasant  rattles  his  scales,  and 
shouts  aloud  the  praises  of  his  grapes ;  a  water-seller  clashes 
brass  cups  together,  the  noisy  exhibition  of  his  vocation  5  and 
beggars  clamor  for  relief  in  the  hoarse  voices  of  age  and  the 
treble  of  childhood. 

•I  have  sent  word  to  the  governor  that  I  will  follow  the 
grand  vizier’s  letter  immediately.  The  bazaar  is  intricate, 
but  our  servants  are  very  intelligent,  and  I  am  soon  at  the 
entrance  to  his  residence.  It  is  a  small  brick  arch,  through 
which  two  men  could  not  easily  walk  abreast  5  the  way  is 
cumbered  with  dust  and  ruin;  at  about  fifty  feet  from  the 
outer  door  there  is  a  rectangular  turning  into  a  small  yard, 
which  is  heaped  with  broken  mud-bricks,  over  which  the  path 
mounts  and  falls.  I  was  making  my  way  through  these  mis¬ 
erable  precincts  of  the  governor’s  palace,  when  a  man  entered 
on  the  scene,  evidently  the  herald  of  a  procession.  He  was 
silver  stick  in  waiting,  and  bore  a  large  staff  tojDped  with 
heavy  ornaments  of  silver.  I  stood  aside  in  the  ruined  yard. 
The  superior  servants  and  secretaries  followed  him,  two  and 


ITIZ  AD-E  L-D  O  WLE  H. 


211 


two,  after  the  manner  of  our  stage  in  Shakspearean  revivals. 
At  last  appeared  the  governor  himself,  dressed  in  a  gold- 
braided  robe  of  cashmere.  He  was  a  young  man,  with  an 
appearance  of  great  refinement  and  of  feeble  health.  We  ex¬ 
changed  salaams,  and  I  gathered  from  his  highness’s  Persian 
that  he  had  just  sent  servants  to  the  chapar-khanah  with  or¬ 
ders  to  present  his  salaam,  and  to  say  that  he  would  be  happy 
to  receive  me  the  next  morning  ^^two  hours  after  the  sun.” 

In  Persia,  all  time  has  reference  to  sunrise.  Caravans  start 
two,  three',  or  four  hours  “  before  the  sun,”  and  visits  of  cere¬ 
mony  are  frequently  paid,  as  the  Governor  of  Koom  proposed 
in  my  case,  two  or  three  hours  after  sunrise.  I  joined  his 
highness  in  the  procession,  and  walked  beside  him  to  the  gate, 
where,  as  is  usual  before  the  houses  of  the  great,  there  sat  a 
dervish,  a  man  of  wildest  aspect,  with  long,  black  hair  falling 
upon  his  shoulders.  He  was  dressed  in  white,  from  turban 
to  his  bare  feet.  He  shouted  Allah-hu  1”  while  the  govern¬ 
or’s  procession  was  passing,  and  scowled  at  me  with  most  ob¬ 
vious  disgust,  appearing  extremely  offended  at  the  civility 
with  which  the  prince  governor  shook  hands  and  expressed 
his  hope  of  seeing  me  in  the  morning. 

The  Governor  of  Koom  is  a  great  personage,  to  whom  the 
Shah  has  given  the  title  of  Itizad-el-Howleh  (the  Grandeur  of 
the  State).  He  is  married  to  the  eldest  daughter  of  his  maj¬ 
esty,  the  Princess  Fekhrul  Mulook.  Her  highness  has  also  a 
title  from  her  imperial  father ;  she  is  addressed  as  “  the  Pomp 
of  the  State.”  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  Itizad-el-Dowleh  has 
neither  vigor,  energy,  nor  ability,  and  that  the  advantages  of 
his  natural  good-breeding  are  wasted  by  excesses,  such  as  Per¬ 
sian  viveurs  most  delight  in.  He  owes  his  position,  his  title, 
and  his  wife  to  the  contrition  of  the  present  Shah  for  having 
consented  to  the  murderous  execution  of  his  father,  the  Mirza 
Teki  Khan,  the  great  Ameer-el-Kizam,  whose  conduct  as  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  acting  grand  vizier,  in  the 


212  THEOUGH  PEES!  A  BY  GAEA  VAN. 

early  part  of  his  majesty’s  reign,  is  referred  to  by  Persians 
with  unbounded  pride  and  satisfaction.  They  speak  of  Teki 
Khan  as  having  been  honest,  as  having  had  no  itching  palm 
for  public  money  or  for  private  bribes  —  a  political  phenom¬ 
enon,  therefore,  in  their  eyes.  The  handsomest  and  largest 
caravanserai  in  Teheran  is,  as  I  have  said,  named  after  him ; 
and  over  the  Ameer’s  tomb  in  that  city  the  repentant  Shah 
has  built  a  structure,  the  blue  dome  of  which  is  one  of  the 
most  prominent  features  in  the  general  aspect  of  Teheran. 

In  his  high  station,  he  was  of  course  the  object  of  jealousy 
and  hatred ;  enemies  intrigued  against  him,  and  represented 
to  the  young  Shah  that  Teki  Khan  not  only  held  himself  to 
be  greatest  in  the  empire,  but  that  the  Ameer-el-Kizam  boast¬ 
ed  of  his  personal  security  as  guaranteed  by  the  Tsar  of  all 
the  Russias.  The  Shah  listened  unwillingly,  for  Teki  Khan 
was  high  in  favor  and  repute,  and  was  his  majesty’s  brother- 
in-law,  having  been  recently  married  to  a  sister  of  the  King 
of  Kings.  But  Kazr-ed-deen  was  versed  in  the  traditions  of 
his  house.  All  men  say  he  is  a  true  Kajar,  and  his  dynasty 
won  and  has  retained  power  by  killing,  or  rendering  impo¬ 
tent,  by  blinding  or  maiming,  any  who  are  suspected  of  ri¬ 
valry. 

Teki  Khan  was  disgraced,  and  sent  away  from  the  sight 
of  “  the  Shadow  of  God but  it  was  long  before  the  Shah 
would  consent  to  his  being  put  to  death.  Day  after  day  his 
enemies  urged  that  he  should  be  disposed  of,  and  suggested 
the  sending  of  assassins  to  the  country  palace  near  Kashan, 
in  which  he  and  the  princess,  his  wife,  were  living,  with  or¬ 
ders  to  kill  him  in  his  own  apartments.  The  Shah  hesitated ; 
he  had  some  affection  for  his  sister,  who  was  devotedly  at¬ 
tached  to  her  distinguished  husband.  The  princess  believed 
that  Teki  Khan’s  life  was  in  danger,  and  never  quitted  his 
side,  knowing  that  her  presence  was  his  chief  security.  At 
last  his  enemies  spread  a  report  that  the  Tsar  intended  to  in- 


ORDER  FOR  ASSASSINATION^. 


213 


terfere,  and  to  obtain  from  the  Shah  an  assurance  of  the  safe¬ 
ty  of  the  Ameer.  The  plot  was  now  successful.  The  Shah 
was  told  that  the  Russian  envoy  was  about  to  demand  that 
the  person  of  Teki  Khan  should  be  inviolable,  and  it  was  art¬ 
fully  represented  that  this  would  render  the  Shah  contempti¬ 
ble  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  who,  in  their  anger,  would  prob¬ 
ably  depose  or  murder  himself.  He  was  persuaded  to  give 
his  consent  to  the  immediate  assassination  of  Teki  Khan,  in 
order  that  his  death  might  be  accomplished  before  the  Rus¬ 
sian  envoy  applied  for  audience. 

The  Shah  gave  way,  and  the  murderers  set  out  with  glee 
to  take  the  life  of  the  ex-minister,  who  had  been  so  great  a 
benefactor  to  his  country.  Their  only  remaining  difficulty 
was  in  detaching  the  princess  from  Teki  Khan,  and  this  they 
accomplished  by  stratagem,  representing  themselves  as  bear¬ 
ers  of  returning  favor  from  the  Shah,  Teki  Khan  received 
them  alone,  expecting  to  hear  that  his  imperial  master  was 
once  more  his  friend.  But  he  was  quickly  undeceived.  Yet 
these  emissaries  of  “the  Shadow  of  God”  were  no  hireling 
assassins,  anxious  to  finish  their  job  with  fatal  dagger  in  the 
quickest  possible  manner ;  they  were  men  who  had  come,  with 
true  Persian  cruelty,  to  enjoy  personal  and  political  revenge 
ill  watching  the  long-drawn  agonies  of  their  victim.  They 
seized  and  stripped  Teki  Khan,  cut  the  arteries  of  his  arms, 
and  then  stood  by  and  beheld,  with  gloating,  his  encounter 
with  death. 

Time  quickly  brought  the  truth  to  light,  and  the  Shah  felt 
guilty  of  the  murder  of  the  noblest  of  his  subjects.  His  maj¬ 
esty  had  two  daughters ;  his  sister,  the  widow  of  the  Ameer, 
had  two  sons.  The  four  children  were  betrothed  in  marriage, 
and  the  penitent  sovereign  pledged  himself  to  regard  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  boys  he  had  made  fatherless.  So  it  happened  that 
the  elder  had  become  his  majesty’s  son-in-law  and  Governor 
of  Koom,  with  power  to  keep  for  himself  the  surplus  of  the 


214 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


results  of  taxation,  after  paying  into  the  imperial  treasury  the 
sum  at  which  the  province  of  Koom  is  assessed  to  the  reve¬ 
nues  of  the  State. 

On  the  morning  after  I  had  seen  his  highness,  at  one  hour 
after  the  sun,”  which  at  that  season  was  eight  o’clock,  I  heard 
a  noise  of  arrival,  and  stepped  out  from  the  mud  hovel,  which 
was  our  only  apartment,  on  to  the  wide  roof  of  the  stables 
of  the  chapar-khanah.  Four  of  the  governor’s  servants,  splen¬ 
did  in  costume  and  armory,  had  arrived,  to  be  my  escort  to 
the  palace.  Our  way  led  through  the  crowded  bazaar,  and 
the  servants,  who  marched  before  me,  did  all  possible  honor 
to  the  occasion  by  the  most  offensive  rudeness  to  the  people. 
I  threatened  to  lead  the  way  myself  if  they  did  not  cease  from 
pushing  the  women  and  men  alike  aside,  sometimes  knocking 
them  down  upon  the  traders’  stalls,  in  their  zeal  to  exhibit  the 
importance  of  their  master  and  of  his  visitor. 

Ko  one  complained,  and  in  no  case  was  there  apparent 
even  a  disposition  to  return  their  blows;  for  the  violent  man¬ 
ner  in  which  they  pushed  and  drove  the  people  with  their 
sticks  frequently  amounted  to  assault.  “  Away,  sons  of  a 
burned  father  I”  “Away,  sons  of  dogs  !”  they  cried,  belabor¬ 
ing  the  camels  and  asses,  which  were  slow  to  perceive  the 
necessity  of  clearing  the  centre  of  the  path  for  our  passage. 
There  may  be  some  alleys  in  the  East  End  of  London  with 
entries  as  mean  and  dirty  as  that  of  the  palace  of  the  Itizad- 
el-Dowleh ;  but,  then,  in  London  the  path  is  not  choked,  as 
it  was  at  Koom,  with  bits  of  sun-baked  clay,  and  with  heaps 
of  dust,  contributed  in  part  from  the  breaking-up  of  the  mud 
cement  with  which  the  walls  are  plastered. 

The  white-clad  dervish  spit,  with  unconcealed  disdain,  as  I 
entered ;  and  on  emerging  from  the  passage  into  a  court-yard, 
in  which  were  placed  a  square  tank  and  a  few  shrubs,  there 
was  a  crowd  of  about  thirty  servants  and  hangers-on,  who 
bowed  with  that  air  of  grave  devotion  which  is  a  charm  of 


A  COAT  OF  HONOR. 


215 


Persian  manner,  and  followed  toward  the  mud-built  house,  a 
single  story  high,  which  bounded  the  court-yard  on  the  far¬ 
ther  side.  The  rooms  of  Persian  houses  very  rarely  have 
doors,  and  a  curtain  of  Manchester  cotton,  printed  in  imita¬ 
tion  of  a  Cashmere  pattern,  was  hung  over  the  door-way  of 
the  Itizad-el-Dowleh’s  reception-room,  which  was  not  more 
than  fifteen  feet  square. 

His  highness  looked  very  uncomfortable  in  his  coat  of 
honor,  which,  I  believe,  w^s  a  present  from  his  imperial  fa¬ 
ther-in-law.  It  is  common  in  Persia  for  the  sovereign  to  send 
a  coat  when  he  wishes  to  bestow  a  mark  of  favor;  and,  of 
course,  if  the  garment  has  been  worn  by  the  Shadow  of 
God,”  the  value  of  the  present  is  greatly  enhanced.  The 
State  coat  of  the  Itizad-el-Dowleh  was  made  from  a  Cash- 
mere  shawl,  of  which  the  ground  was  white.  The  shape  was 
something  like  a  frock-coat,  except  that  it  had  no  collar,  and 
the  waist  was  bunched  up  in  gathers,  which  gives,  even  to 
wmll-made  men,  an  awkward  and  clumsy  appearance.  It  was 
lined  throughout  with  gray  fur,  resembling  chinchilla.  Upon 
his  head  he  wore  the  usual  high  black  hat  of  Astrakhan  fur. 
His  black  trousers  were  wide  and  short,  after  the  Persian 
manner,  allowing  an  ample  display  of  his  coarse  white  socks 
and  shoes.  He  rose  from  an  arm-chair,  which  had  probably 
formed  part  of  the  camp  equipage  of  a  Kiissian  oflicer,  and 
on  his  left  hand  there  were  ranged  three  similar  chairs — fold¬ 
ing-chairs,  with  seats  of  Russian  leather.  The  walls  and  ceil¬ 
ing  were  whitewashed,  and  the  floor,  as  is  usual,  covered  with 
the  beautiful  carpets  of  the  country.  The  governor’s  chair 
and  mine  were  placed  on  a  small  Austrian  rug,  which  was 
probably  valued  for  its  glaring  stripes  of  green  and  white ; 
the  farther  corners  of  it  were  held  down  by  glass  weights,  on 
the  under  side  of  which  were  photographic  portraits  of  the 
Emperor  ISTapoleon  HI.  and  of  the  Empress  Eugenie. 

The  Itizad-el-Dowleh  could  speak  a  few  words  of  French, 


216 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


and  understand  simple  phrases  in  that  language ;  but  he  had 
never  been  in  Europe.  While  we  were  exchanging  civilities 
in  French,  two  servants  were  brewing  tea  upon  the  floor  with 
a  steaming  samovar.  The  infusion  was  sweetened  in  the  pot, 
for  Persians  are  of  one  mind  in  the  matter  of  sugar,  and  in¬ 
variably  like  as  much  as  the  water  will  hold  without  ceasing 
to  be  fluid  —  that  which  chemists  call  a  saturated  solution. 
The  tea  was  served  on  metal  trays  of  Persian  design,  in  pret¬ 
ty  cups  of  French  porcelain,  with  lemons  cut  in  halves ;  and 
afterward  pipes  were  brought  in,  the  live  charcoal  which  was 
laid  upon  the  damp  tobacco  being  blown  occasionally  by  the 
servants  until  the  tube  reached  the  mouth  of  the  smoker.  I 
refused,  and  the  jeweled  mouth-piece  of  the  flexible  tube  was 
then  presented  to  the  governor,  the  water-bowl  of  the  kalian 
being  held  by  a  slave,  while  his  highness  languidly  inhaled 
the  smoke. 

I  am  sure  that  my  dislike  for  tobacco  was  not  unwelcome 
to  any  one  of  the  grandees  of  Persia.  To  a  true  Mussulman, 
it  is  very  disagreeable  to  place  in  his  mouth  the  tube  which 
has  just  quitted  the  lips  of  an  infidel;  and  I  have  heard  of 
Persians  of  rank  being  provided  with  a  double  mouth-piece, 
so  that,  after  fulfilling  the  hospitable  duty  of  presenting  the 
pipe  to  a  Christian  guest,  they  could  unobserved  slip  off  the 
piece  from  which  he  had  drawn  the  smoke,  and  enjoy  the 
second  without  defilement.  The  feeling  which  leads  English 
people  to  wipe  the  brim  of  the  loving-cup  before  passing  the 
goblet  to  a  neighbor  has  no  place  in  the  Persian  mind.  The 
governor  knows  perfectly  well  that  the  pipe  from  which  he 
draws  a  few  puffs  of  smoke  will  be  finished  by  his  servants ; 
and  indeed  a  kalian  is  always  tried  after  it  is  lighted  by  the 
pipe -bearer,  who,  if  necessary,  keeps  it  alight  by  smoking 
until  his  master  is  ready  for  it.  The  pipe  is  always  followed 
by  black  coffee,  thick,  strong,  and  sweet,  the  quantity  served 
to  each  person  never  exceeding  the  meditjal  dose  of  two 


MESJID-I-JUMA. 


217 


table-spoonfuls,”  in  china  cups  without  handles,  which,  in  the 
houses  of  the  great,  are  usually  secured  in  metal  egg-cups  of 
gold  or  silver,  studded  with  turquoises  and  garnets.  After 
the  coffee  one  looks  for  leave  to  go— to  obtain  permission  to 
retire ;  a  w^ord  which,  in  Persia,  is  always  su23posed  to  be  given 
by  the  greater  person,  whether  the  visitor  or  the  visited. 

In  Peisian  fashion,  the  governor  placed  himself  and  all  his 
power  at  my  disposal ;  but  I  found  it  impossible  to  make  him 
understand  that  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Ronald  Thomson, 
the  very  able  secretary  of  the  British  Legation  in  Teheran,  I 
wished  to  see  as  much  as  could  be  permitted  of  the  sacred 
buildings  of  Koom.  We  sent  for  the  clerk  of  the  Indian  Gov¬ 
ernment  Telegraph,  which  has  a  testing  station  in  Koom; 
and  with  his  help  it  was  arranged  that  the  Itizad-el-Dow- 
leh’s  servants  should  take  me  to  the  Mesjid-i-Juma,  the  oldest 
mosque  m  Koom,  to  the  tomb  of  Feth-Ali-Shah,  and  that  I 
should  enter  the  door-way  of  the  golden-domed  mosque  of 
Fatima,  and  look  upon — for  it  could  not  be  expected  that  an 
infidel  should  approach — the  shrine  of  that  sacred  sister  of 
the  most  holy  Imam  Reza. 

^  The  two  servants  who  were  appointed  to  lead  this  excur¬ 
sion  looked  as  if  they  had  been  chosen  for  their  strength; 
Biey  were  two  of  the  largest,  most  powerful  men  I  had  seeii 
in  Peisia.  The  Mesjid,  or  mosque,  of  Juma  was  very  like  the 
mosque  of  Kasveen,  but  rather  more  decayed  and  dilapidated ; 
and  from  this  we  passed  quickly  to  the  tomb  of  Feth-Ali- 
Shah,  which  was  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  The  tomb  is  a 
jiafallelogram,  in  shape  like  many  which  were  erected  in  En¬ 
glish  church-yards  a  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  a  simple  struct¬ 
ure  of  brick,  covered  with  very  beautiful  tiles,  with  brown 
letteis  laised  in  high-relief  on  a  ground  of  blue,  not  much  un¬ 
like  the  samples  of  this  work  which  have  been  procured  for 
the  South  Kensington  Museum  by  Major  Smith.  Over  the 
tomb  there  is  a  small  building  or  mosque. 

10 


218 


THKOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


From  the  resting-place  of  Feth-Ali-Shahj  I  returned  through 
the  centre  of  the  town  toward  the  grand  mosque  containing 
the  shrine  of  Fatima.  I  expected  difficulty  there.  Koom  is 
renowned  throughout  Persia  for  devotion  to  Islam  and  for 
hatred  of  infidels.  'Not  long  ago,  an  Armenian  doctor  was  in 
imminent  danger,  from  the  fact  that  he,  a  Christian,  had  en¬ 
tered  this  mosque  in  disguise.  It  appears  that  he  had  in  this 
way  been  successful  in  seeing  the  Caaba  at  Mecca  5  and  this 
success  had,  no  doubt,  made  him  contemptuous  as  to  danger 
from  the  fanaticism  of  Persia.  Clothed  as  a  pilgrim,  he  had 
entered  the  mosque  we  were  approaching;  and  having  seen 
the  shrine  of  Fatima,  was  leaving  the  building.  He  met  with 
a  moollah  in  the  door-way,  and  could  not  refrain  from  boast- 
ino-  of  his  success.  “  There  is  not  much  to  see  here,”  he  said, 
and  compared  it  with  Mecca.  The  priest’s  suspicions  were 
aroused ;  he  told  the  by-standers  that  he  believed  the  sanctu¬ 
ary  had  been  violated  by  a  Christian,  who  had  committed  the 
graver  offense  at  Mecca.  The  anger  of  the  people  grew  hot 
and  hotter  by  talking  together ;  and  at  last  a  crowd  rushed 
down  to  the  chapar-khanah,  where  the  pretended  Moslem  was 
staying,  in  the  mud  hovel  which  w^e  occupied  during  our  stay 
in  Koom.  He  was  warned  just  in  time  to  save  his  life  by 
flight  over  the  back  wall  of  the  post-house. 

My  appearance  in  the  court -yard  of  the  mosque  caused 
great  excitement.  Along  the  sides  of  the  inclosure,  which  is 
nearly  half  an  acre  in  extent,  there  are  seats,  upon  which  idlers 
of  the  “  Softa  ”  class,  and  beggars,  with  no  pretensions  to 
learnino:,  but  with  abundant  fanaticism,  were  sitting.  Most 
of  them  rose  at  the  sight  of  my  procession,  which  was  mak¬ 
ing  directly  for  the  main  door  of  the  mosque.  In  the  centre 
,  was  the  usual  tank,  around  which  were  ranged  a  few  shrubs 
in  wooden  boxes ;  the  golden  dome  of  the  mosque  rose,  glit¬ 
tering  and  grand,  in  the  foreground.  In  the  door-way  hung 
a  heavy  chain,  festooned  in  such  a  manner  that  none  could 


EECEPTION  AT  THE  MOSQUE. 


219 


outer  without  a  lowly  bendiug  of  the  head ;  and  behind  this 
stood  a  black -bearded  moollah,  wearing  a  huge  turban  of 
gi  ecu  the  saci  ed  color — and  next  him  I  recognizedj  with  a 
sense  of  coming  defeatj  the  wild  -  looking  dervish  who  had 
cursed  and  frowned  at  me  from  the  door-way  of  the  govern¬ 
or’s  palace.  His  face  now  wore  an  expression  really  ter¬ 
rible. 

The  two  gigantic  servants  of  the  Itizad-el-Dowleh,  who  led 
the  way,  mounted  the  steps,  and,  standing  outside  the  chain, 
informed  the  priest  that  it  was  the  governor’s  wish  that  I 
should  be  allowed  to  enter  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  see  the 
shrine  and  the  surrounding  tombs.  The  moollah  replied  with 
an  angry  negative,  and  the  dervish  supported  him  with  wild 
gesticulations.  The  servants  pushed  forward,  evidently  think¬ 
ing  that  I  should  demand  the  fulfillment  of  their  master’s  or¬ 
der.  But  to  force  a  passage  appeared  to  me  not  only  very 
dangerous,  but  unjustifiable ;  and,  from  all  that  we  had  seen  of 
Persian  mosques  and  shrines,  I  doubted  if  the  contents  of  this 
mosque  were  sufficiently  interesting  to  warrant  the  slightest 
risk  or  disturbance.  Clearly,  too,  the  moollahs  were  stronger 
in  this  matter  than  the  governor.  Already  a  crowd  watched 
the  altercation,  and  every  man  in  it  could  be  relied  on  to  sup¬ 
port  the  moollahs,  while  in  the  crowded  bazaar  close  at  hand 
they  had  a  reserve  of  force  willing  and  eager  to  do  the  work 
of  fanaticism  a  force  which  could  destroy  any  other  power 
in  Room.  I  ordered  a  retreat ;  and,  lest  the  servants  should 
not  understand  my  words,  beckoned  them  to  quit  the  door¬ 
way.  Fortunately  I  had  learned  to  beckon  in  the  Persian 
manner.  I  had  noticed  that  when  I  held  up  my  hand  and 
waved  it  toward  my  face  in  the  European  way,  our  servants 
did  not  understand  this  direction.  The  hand  must  be  turned 
downward,  and  the  waving  done  with  the  wrist  uppermost. 
This  was  the  sign  I  made  in  the  court-yard  of  the  mosque  at 
Koom.  Our  jDosition  in  recrossing  the  long  court-yard  was 


220 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


not  very  enviable ;  in  Persia  the  vanquished  are  always  con¬ 
temptible;  but  there  were  no  unpleasant  manifestations. 

In  Koom  we  found  it  impossible  to  refill  our  empty  wine- 
bottles.  Something  stronger  than  the  Maine  Liquor  Law 
prevails  in  this  sacred  city  and  in  that  of  Meshed,  where  the 
brother  of  Fatima  is  buried.  Intoxicating  liquors  appear  to 
be  absolutely  unattainable,  and  intoxication  is  accomplished 
by  those  who  desire  that  condition  with  bhang,  or  opium. 
That  which  can  be  purchased  anywhere  in  Koom,  cheaper 
and  of  better  quality  and  manufacture  than  elsewhere  in  Per¬ 
sia,  is  pottery,  for  which  the  town  is  famous.  The  water- 
bottles  of  Koom  are  seen  all  over  Persia.  The  clay,  when 
baked,  is  fine,  hard,  and  nearly  white,  and  the  potters  have  a 
specialty  in  the  way  of  decoration.  They  stud  the  outside 
of  their  bottles  with  spots  of  vitrified  blue,  like  turquoises, 
in  patterns  varied  with  yellow  spots  of  the  same  character. 
The  effect  is  very  pleasing.  In  the  bazaar  of  Koom  we 
bought  three  delicious  melons,  each  about  a  foot  in  diameter, 
for  a  kran,  the  value  of  tenpence  in  English  money. 

The  muezzin  was  shouting  ‘^Allahu  akbar,”  and  the  call  to 
the  day-break  prayer,  when  our  caravan  set  out  for  Pasangan, 
the  next  station  south  of  Koom.  There  is  difficulty,  as  we 
afterward  found,  in  the  passage  of  a  ship  of  three  thousand 
tons  burden  through  the  Suez  Canal ;  but  there  is  much 
greater  difficulty  in  passing  a  takht-i-rawan  through  the  ba¬ 
zaar  at  Koom  at  about  seven  o’clock  in  the  morning.  What 
Avith  the  opposing  stream  of  traffic  and  the  anxiety  of  all  to 
see  the  English  Tchanoum,  the  operation  Avas  most  difficult. 
After  enduring  many  collisions  Avith  loaded  camels  and 
mules  and  donkeys,  Ave  escaped  from  the  croAvd  of  black  hats 
and  broAvn  hats,  green  turbans  and  AA^hite  turbans,  and  Averc 
once  more  in  the  open  plain,  Avhere  the  only  A^ariety  occurred 
in  the  fording  of  Avater- courses  Avhich  crossed  the  path  be¬ 
tween  artificial  banks  raised  for  the  purpose  of  irrigation. 


VIEW  FROM  CHAPAR-KHANAH. 


221 


A?V^e  thought  we  had  never  beheld  a  more  lovely  sunrise 
than  that  in  the  faint  light  of  which  we  left  the  chapar-kha- 
nah  of  Pasangan.  Above,  yet  near  to  the  horizon,  having  a 
clear  space  beneath  it,  there  hung  a  dense  dark  cloud.  In  a 
moment  this  was  infused  with  rose -color;  then  it  became  a 
floating  mass  of  gold,  increasing  in  splendor  until  the  arisen 
sun  passed  behind  it,  and  over  all  was  gloom.  Through  the 
day  we  rode  across  the  dusty  plain  to  Sin-sin,  a  mud-built 
chapar-khanah  and  caravanserai,  so  entirely  the  color  of  the 
plain  that  it  was  difficult,  when  there  was  no  shadow,  to  see 
the  buildings  before  we  were  clo^e  to  the  walls.  When  the 
usual  operations  of  sweeping  out  the  bala-khanah  and  cover¬ 
ing  the  doors  and  windows  with  hangings  had  been  perform¬ 
ed,  the  carpets  laid,  our  beds  set  up  and  made,  the  table 
spread  for  dinner,  I  sat,  as  usual,  on  the  roof,  avoiding  the 
smoke-holes.  Through  the  clouds  rising  in  one  of  these  holes 
I  could  see  Kazem  tending  his  stew-pots  in  an  atmosphere 
dense  with  smoke,  and  unendurable  to  any.  but  those  who  are 
accustomed  to  sit  on  the  ground.  Outside,  the  scene  was,  as 
always,  charming ;  as  always  of  magnificent  extent,  and  as  in¬ 
variably  bounded  on  every  side  by  mountains.  In  the  plain, 
toward  the  town  of  Kashan,  a  few  patches  of  softest  green, 
the  wheat  crop  of  next  year,  were  the  only  vegetation.  Be¬ 
fore  us,  distant  two  days’  march,  lay  the  snowy  outline  of  the 
highest  mountain  pass  in  Central  Persia.  Cold  and  clear  in 
the  fading  sunlight,  it  seemed  very  near;  and  the  black,  ser¬ 
rated  outline  of  the  lower  ranges  against  the  silver  sky  gave 
that  aspect  to  the  landscape  which,  while  it  fills  the  mind 
with  melancholy,  is  accepted  as  most  beautiful. 


222 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Kaslian. — Visit  to  the  Governor. — Kashan  Bazaar. — The  Governor’s  House. 
— The  Governor  on  Railways. — Tea,  Pipes,  and  Sherbet. — A  Ride  round 
Kashan. — House  pulled  down. — Present  from  the  Governor. — Presents 
from  Servants. — Manna. — Leaving  Kashan. — Gabrabad. — Up  the  Mount¬ 
ains. — A  Robber  Haunt. — Kuhrud. — In  the  Snow. — A  Persian  Interior. 
— A  Welcome  Visitor. — Kazem  as  a  Cook. — The  Takht-i-rawan  Frozen. 
— Pass  of  Kuhrud. — Soh. — “The  Blue  Man.” — Beauties  of  the  Road. — 
Province  of  Ispahan. — Moot-i-Khoor. — Ispahan  Melons. — Village  of  Gez. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  last  day  in  Xovember  we  left 
Sin- sin,  and  rode  toward  Kashan,  which  lies  beneath  high 
mountains.  About  two  in  the  afternoon  we  arrived  in  the 
court-yard  of  the  telegraph-office,  where  Mr.  Xicolai,  an  Arme¬ 
nian,  gave  us  hospitable  welcome.  His  house,  extraordinary 
as  a  building  having  a  second  story,  though  the  upper  floor 
was  so  ruined  that  no  part  was  habitable,  stands  at  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  the  town,  beside  a  broad  road,  horribly  rough 
as  to  pavement,  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  entrance  to 
the  bazaar.  Xo  picture  could  give  an  adequate  conception 
of  the  appearance  of  such  a  town  as  Kashan.  There  are  hov¬ 
els  in  the  County  Meath  hardly  more  comfortable,  though  far 
less  roomy,  than  the  flat,  square  boxes,  plastered  with  mud 
and  broken  straw,  in  which  the  Persians  dwell.  But  in  West¬ 
ern  countries  the  roofs  of  the  houses  give  variety  of  outline 
and  of  tint;  in  a  town  like  Kashan,  all  is  of  the  dusty  color 
of  the  road. 

Immediately  upon  our  arrival,  we  sent  a  servant  at  once 
to  the  haJcem,  or  governor,  with  a  letter  of  recommendation 
from  the  grand  vizier ;  and  very  soon  an  answer  was  returned 


THE  BAZAAR  OF  KASHAN. 


223 


that  the  governor  was  waiting  to  receive  me.  Two  led  horses 
and  five  servants  followed  the  governor’s  letter,  and,  mount¬ 
ing  one,  I  gave  the  other  to  Mr.  Nicolai,  who  was  kindly  will¬ 
ing  to  act  as  interpreter  in  my  interview  with  the  governor 
of  Kashan. 

The  town  is  famous  for  saucepans  and  scorpions.  A  hun¬ 
dred  wooden  hammers  were  ringing  upon  as  many  copper 
pots  and  pans  when  we  entered  the  bazaar,  the  governor’s  five 
servants  clearing  the  way  in  the  usual  unceremonious  fashion. 
The  brass  and  copper  work  of  Kashan  is  useful  rather  than 
ornamental.  Some  of  the  pans  and  kettles  are  engraved  with 
rude  ornament;  but  although  this  is  the  Birmingham  of  Per¬ 
sia,  there  is  no  lavish  bestowal  of  labor  on  any  of  the  produc¬ 
tions  of  Kashan — no  elegances  in  metal-work  such  as  may 
be  purchased  in  Ispahan  or  Benares.  The  bazaar  of  Kashan 
has  a  vaulted  roof  of  stone,  from  which  the  noise  of  the  sauce¬ 
pan-makers  resounded  so  loudly  that  conversation  was  impos¬ 
sible.  Other  alleys  were  devoted  to  more  quiet  industries. 
In  the  East  the  carpenters  and  turners  make  no  small  use 
of  their  toes.  Being  always  barefooted  when  at  work,  and 
seated  either  on  the  ground  or  upon  the  level  platform  of  a 
stall  or  shop  in  the  bazaar,  they  from  childhood  accustom 
their  toes  to  such  motions  and  functions  as  European  fingers 
are  wont  to  undertake ;  and  in  bowing  or  ginning  cotton,  in 
turning  or  in  carpentry,  the  toes  often  do  the  work  of  a  third 
hand. 

The  life  of  Eastern  tradesmen,  especially  of  those  engaged 
in  the  comparatively  inert  occupations  of  selling  groceries 
or  manufactured  cottons,  must  be  very  unwholesome.  They 
spend  their  days,  for  the  most  part,  seated  in  the  perpetual 
gloom  of  the  sunless  bazaars,  which  are  icy -cold  in  winter, 
and  through  which  draughts  of  chilling  air  are  always  blow¬ 
ing.  Their  only  fire  is  a  pan  of  charcoal,  upon  which  they 
sometimes  sit,  when  it  is  covered  with  a  perforated  box.  At 


224 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Other  times  two  or  three  may  be  seen  crowding  together  to 
warm  their  hands  over  this  lifeless  fire.  Very  many  sleep  in 
their  shoj)s,  and  never  see  the  sunlight  except  in  the  morning, 
or  midday,  or  evening  walk  to  the  mosque,  the  court-yard  of 
which  is  usually  entered  from  the  bazaar.  Bread  and  fruit 
aie  their  ordinary  foodj  the  kalian,  their  solace  and  diver¬ 
sion.  They  dread  none  so  much  as  the  servants  of  the  <rov- 
ernor,  who  are  the  instruments  of  extortion  and  oppression 
in  the  name  and  with  the  authority  of  the  State. 

One  could  see  all  this  in  the  swaggering,  bullying  manner 
of  those  who  were  leading  me  to  the  governor’s  house,  which 
was  of  the  usual  character.  jN’ear  the  mud-plastered  entrance 
I  saw  two  black  slaves  running,  each  with  a  chair  held  high 
above  his  head,  and  knew  immediately  that  these  were  be¬ 
ing  “  requisitioned  ”  for  the  interview.  About  twenty  serv¬ 
ants  received  me  at  the  door,  and  made  a  sort  of  procession 
through  the  customary  covered  way  into  the  customary  court- 
yaid,  with  the  regulation  tank  and  shrubs  j  and  as  many  as 
could  get  there,  including  our  own  servants,  crowded  into  the 
little  room,  about  twelve  feet  square,  in  which  sat  the  ruler 
of  the  province  of  Kashan,  a  man  of  very  high  and  rare  re¬ 
pute  for  justice  and  public  honesty— a  sickly,  ascetic-look¬ 
ing  person,  dressed  in  a  long  robe  of  dark  Cashmere,  who 
rose  from  his  chair,  laid  his  hand  upon  the  front  of  his  high 
black  hat,  and  bowed  with  grave  dignity  in  reply  to  my  sa¬ 
laam.  At  his  feet  on  the  floor,  with  hospitable  intent,  was 
placed  a  tray  with  cups  and  saucers,  and  a  steaming  samovar, 
the  fire  of  which  was  occasionally  blown  by  a  squatting  at¬ 
tendant. 

In  opening  a  conversation  at  a  formal  interview  of  this 
sort  in  Persia,  it  is  always  expected,  not  merely  by  the  great 
officer  himself,  but  by  all,  who  with  open  ears  stand  around, 
that  some  compliment — the  more  high-flown  the  better — will 
be  given  and  repaid.  To  any  traveling  Englishman  who  is 


TEA,  PIPES,  AND  SHEEBET.  ' 


225 


well  recommended,  the  governor  will  be  likely  to  say  that  he 
is  proud  to  entertain  one  of  the  most  noble  and  exalted  men 
of  the  English  nation,  the  friend  of  his  master  the  Shah ;  and 
the  Englishman,  mindful  that  with  this  man  formality  is  every 
thing,  must  do  his  best  to  combine  truth  with  flattery  in  his 
reply.  Reminded,  probably  by  the  appearance  of  an  English¬ 
man,  of  Baron  Reuter  and  his  proposed  railways,  the  govern¬ 
or  proceeded  to  remark,  very  languidly,  that  a  railway  would 
be  a  good  thing,  and  would  make  traveling  more  jileasant 
for  persons  like  myself.  I  do  not  think  he  had  the  faintest 
idea  what  a  railway  was  like,  or  he  would  probably  have  re¬ 
garded  it  in  relation  to  the  country  and  to  the  Persians.  He 
seemed  to  think  that  a  railway  was  something  in  which  En¬ 
glishmen  liked  to  travel  —  something  which  peculiarly  be¬ 
longed  to  them.  'No  doubt  in  his  heart  he  looked  upon  a 
railway  as  a  machinery  for  bringing  Englishmen  into  coun¬ 
tries  where  they  were  not  wanted,  and  which  they  would  not 
leave  if  once  introduced  by  this  mysterious  and  mechanical 
steam  caravan. 

Mr.  Nicolai  remarked  that  there  had  been  a  band  of  rob¬ 
bers  on  the  mountains  between  Kashan  and  Ispahan,  and  sug¬ 
gested  that  the  governor  should  furnish  us  with  a  guard  of 
soldiers.  He  said  that  he  believed  the  road,  was  safe  now, 
but  that  he  should  wish  to  give  us  a  guard ;  that  he  should 
order  some  soldiers  to  accompany  our  caravan  across  the 
mountains  to  the  next  telegraph  station  at  Soh.  Meanwhile, 
the  ordinary  entertainment  was  proceeding ;  the  sweet  tea 
Iiad  been  duly  served  ;  then  pipes ;  then  sherbet,  with  ice 
and  sweetmeats ;  lastly,  coffee.  The  governor,  according  to 
the  strict  etiquette  of  Mohammedan  countries,  made  no  inqui- 
ly  for  my  companion :  to  allude  directly  to  a  visitor’s  wife 
would  be  an  excess  of  impropriety.  His  excellency  was  sor¬ 
ry,  so  he  said,  that  I  intended  to  leave  Kashan  the  next  morn¬ 
ing.  He  had  hoped  that  he  might  himself  have  shown  me 

10^' 


226 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAIf. 


some  of  the  interesting  sights  (there  were  none)  of  the  town  ; 
but  he  thought  that  at  least  I  should  do  well  to  ride  through 
the  streets  of  Kashan,  and  he  would  send  mounted  servants 
as  a  guard  of  honor. 

In  a  Persian  town  few  of  the  streets  have  a  greater  width 
than  ten  or  twelve  feet,  and  the  way  is  generally  encumbered 
with  a  dirty  water-course  (worn  more  or  less  deep,  according 
to  the  elevation  of  the  ground),  and  with  stray  bricks  and 
stones  from  the  ruins  of  houses.  There  is  no  town  in  Persia 
in  which  there  are  not  probably  as  many  houses  in  this  con¬ 
dition  as  there  are  houses  which  are  inhabited.  But  at  the 
corner  of  two  streets  I  saw,  in  my  ride  through  Kashan,  a 
house  which  looked  as  if  it  had  been  suddenly  tumbled  by 
earthquake  into  ruin ;  and  this,  I  was  informed,  had  recently 
been  thrown  down  by  order  of  the  governor.  It  had  been  a 
house  of  ill-fame,  and  had  in  this  way  been  punished  for  its 
sins. 

After  a  ride  round  the  town,  I  arrived  at  the  telegraph  of¬ 
fice,  and  dismissed,  with  pishkish  (the  equivalent  for  back¬ 
shish),  the  large  retinue  with  which  the  governor’s  courtesy 
had  provided  me.  In  half  an  hour,  another  procession  ap¬ 
proached  from  the  governor’s  palace.  His  major-domo  led 
the  way — a  tall  Persian,  whose  beard,  dyed  blue-black  with 
indigo,  descended  near  the  scarlet  girdle  of  his  waist.  This 
man  was  followed  by  two  black  slaves,  in  white  tunics  and 
turbans,  each  of  whom  carried  on  his  head  a  circular  metal 
tray,  about  a  yard  in  diameter,  on  one  of  which  there  were 
six  plates  piled  high  with  fruit,  apples,  pears,  pomegranates, 
dried  apricots,  figs,  and  oranges,  and  on  the  other  sweetmeats 
in  an  equal  number  of  plates.  This  was  the  governor’s  pres¬ 
ent,  and  by  far  the  best  part  of  it  was  the  picturesque  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  bearers,  a  complete  realization  of  a  scene  in  ‘‘  The 
Arabian  Kights’  Entertainments.”  The  slaves  laid  the  huge 
trays  at  my  feet,  and,  according  to  custom,  all  held  out  their 


PEESENTS  FROM  SERVANTS. 


227 


hands  for  money.  Whenever  a  governor  makes  a  present, 
which  is  regarded  as  doing  great  honor  to  the  receiver,  noth¬ 
ing  less  than  ten  krans  will  satisfy  the  servants. 

About  eighteen  months  ago,  an  Englishman,  who  liad  an 
appointment  in  Persia,  arrived  in  one  of  the  principal  towns, 
and  received  a  present  of  this  sort  from  the  governor.  He 
gave  liberal  pishMsh,  and  two  days  afterward  there  arrived 
another  present ;  he  gave  more  largess ;  again,  another  pres¬ 
ent  came,  and  another,  until  his  suspicions  were  awakened, 
and  he  discovered  that  none  but  the  first  had  come  from  the 
governor;  that  the  servants  of  his  highness  had  purchased 
and  presented  the  succeeding  presents  for  the  sake  of  obtain¬ 
ing  his  more  valuable  gifts.  It  is  very  probable  it  is  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  general  conduct  of  affairs  in  Persia  that  the 
governor  should  obtain  his  servants  at  a  cheaper  rate  than 
others,  upon  the  implied,  if  not  expressed,  understanding  that 
they  are  to  make  what  they  can  by  oppression  of  the  peoj^le, 
and  by  looking  for  presents  in  every  direction.  Of  the  dozen 
earthenware  plates  on  the  two  trays,  we  noticed  that  most 
were  of  the  familiar  willow  pattern.”  In  each  there  was 
a  red  paper,  with  edges  cut  ornamentally,  and  on  this  was 
placed  the  fruit  or  sweetmeat.  Of  the  latter,  one  plate  was 
filled  with  small  circular  cakes  of  manna.  We  met  with  this 
very  nice  sweetmeat  in  other  towns,  but  nowhere  so  good  as 
that  we  received  from  the  Governor  of  Kashan.  The  manna 
is  found,  in  appearance  like  dew,  upon  the  leaves  of  the  tam¬ 
arisk  {gez,  Persian ;  athl,  Arabic)  plant,  and  is  collected  in 
the  morning  with  the  utmost  care.  The  ground  beneath  the 
bushes  is  swept  clean,  and  a  cotton  cloth  sjDread  under  the 
branches.  These  are  then  shaken,  and  the  manna  collected, 
and  made,  with  sugar  or  honey  and  flour,  into  circular  cakes 
about  two  inches  in  diameter  and  half  an  inch  thick.  Split 
almonds  are  sometimes  set  in  the  sweetmeat  before  it  is  baked. 

It  was  warm  in  Kashan,  except  during  the  night,  at  the 


228 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


end  of  November,  In  summer  this  is  one  of  the  hottest 
places  in  Persia.  Scorpions  gambol  in  the  dust.  The  tele¬ 
graph  clerk  said  that  in  summer  he  had  burned  his  hand  by 
merely  touching  a  bottle  which  had  for  some  time  been  ex¬ 
posed  to  the  sun.  When  our  caravan  left  Kashan  in  the 
morning  before  sunrise,  we  had  the  jDrospect  of  passing  in 
our  day’s  ride  from  this  climate,  by  an  elevation  of  nearly 
live  thousand  feet,  into  the  snows  of  Kuhrud,  a  village  which 
gives  its  name  to  the  highest  pass,  and  to  the  highest  chapar- 
khanah,  in  Persia.  In  the  gray  dawn  we  rode  through  the 
quiet  town.  As  in  no  Persian  house,  except  in  the  exceeding¬ 
ly  rare  case  of  a  second  story,  is  there  a  window  visible  from 
outside,  no  house  gives  light  or  sign  of  life,  and  the  way 
was  very  dark  and  crooked  beyond  description.  After  pass¬ 
ing  about  half  a  dozen  corners,  I  saw  some  horsemen  stand¬ 
ing  in  the  road-way.  There  was  only  just  light  enough  to  see 
them,  in  the  obscurity  of  the  walled  street.  Their  “  Salaam, 
sahib !”  as  I  approached,  suggested  the  fact  that  they  were 
the  escort  promised  by  the  governor.  They  proved  the  best 
guard  we  had  in  Persia  —  handy,  docile  men,  strong  and 
quick,  ready  to  lift  the  takht-i-rawan  to  the  mules’  backs,  or 
to  dart  away  over  the  plains  if  there  were  a  chance  of  secur¬ 
ing  a  partridge,  a  wild  duck,  or  an  antelope. 

Outside  Kashan,  we  at  once  entered  upon  a  brown,  pebbly 
slope,  which  extended  in  a  gentle  gradient  for  fourteen  miles 
to  Avhere  the  mountains  rose  abruptly  to  the  snow,  which  lay 
white  and  deejD  upon  the  summit  of  the  pass.  For  hours  we 
toiled  up  this  bare  and  barren  slope,  and,  before  we  entered 
the  mountains,  turned  to  enjoy  the  extensive  interesting  view 
over  the  plain  of  Kashan,  in  which  the  brown  flats  of  the 
town  would  have  been  hardly  visible  but  for  the  trees,  and 
the  few  domes  and  minarets  marking  the  position  of  a  com¬ 
munity  which  is  regarded  by  Persians  as  immensely  busy 
and  prosperous,  on  account  of  the  trade  in  hand-made  pots 


A  EOBBER  HAUNT. 


229 


and  pans.  About  noon  we  arrived  at  Gabrabad,  a  ruined 
caravanserai,  a  notorious  hiding-place  for  robbers.  It  was 
then  so  cold  that  we  were  glad  to  find  a  sunny  spot  among 
the  ruins  on  which  to  sit  and  eat  our  luncheon — a  fried  cutlet 
of  kid,  which  was  a  failure,  and  an  omelet,  in  the  manufact¬ 
ure  of  which  Kazem  was  an  expert. 

From  Gabrabad,  for  six  or  seven  miles,  we  mounted  the 
course  of  a  rapidly  descending  stream.  The  lady  of  the 
takht-i-rawan  had  in  this  part  of  the  Journey  a  most  uneasy 
ride,  for  we  crossed  the  purling  stream  more  than  twenty 
times,  and  the  front  mule  slid  down  and  scrambled  up  the 
banks,  dragging  the  hind  mule  after  him,  with  no  regard  for 
the  level  of  the  takht-i-rawan,  the  shafts  of  which  were  some¬ 
times  nearly  in  the  ground  at  one  end  or  the  other.  In  such 
a  country  it  is  not  easy,  with  baggage  mules,  to  make  three 
miles  an  hour,  and  our  pace  hardly  equaled  that. 

The  mountains  rose  darkly  on  either  side  up  to  the  line  of 
snow  which  we  were  approaching.  N'o  robber  band  could 
desire  a  more  eligible  field  for  operations.  The  stream  of 
melted  snow  was  a  zigzag  among  hills  any  one  of  which  would 
have  concealed  a  large  force ,  and  Kazem  made  the  way  more 
agreeable  by  riding  up  to  me  and  saying,  half  in  Persian  (the 
Avords  ‘"good”  and  “bad”  in  Persian  have  very  much  the 
same  sound  as  in  English),  half  in  . English,  Bad,  bad,  rob- 
beisj  meaning,  as  he  swept  his  hand  around  the  landscape 
f  1  om  east  to  Avest,  that  the  country  had  a  most  evil  reputa¬ 
tion  in  this  particular  place  for  insecurity.  But  Ave  Av^ere 
fortunate,  and  the  cold  season  Avas  all  in  our  favor.  From 
ISTovember  to  April,  on  the  highlands  of  Persia,  caravans  are 
rarely  attacked. 

As  Avo  dreAV  near  the  top  of  the  mountain,  the  country  be¬ 
came  more  open ;  and  Avhen  our  horses  were  treading  through 
patches  of  snow,  we  Avere  close  to  one  of  the  best-cultivated 
village  lands  in  Persia.  There  Avere  Avell-tilled  gardens  ter- 


230 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


raced  up  the  side  of  the  mountain,  reminding  us  of  the  toil¬ 
some  industry  of  Switzerland,  and* the  neatness  of  the  work 
was  not  less  suggestive  of  the  comparison.  The  road — for 
there  was  now  a  road  between  the  fenced  patches  of  tilled 
land — passed  beneath  overhanging  boughs  of  walnut-trees, 
which  in  the  time  of  leaf  must  afford  most  delicious  shade. 
There  were  groves  of  poplar  and  hazel,  giving  promise  of 
abundant  fire -wood  in  this  snowy  region.  The  mud -huts 
seemed  stronger  and  cleaner  than  those  of  the  plains,  and  the 
people  more  active.  One  could  well  understand  that  these 
swarthy  mountaineers  could  furnish  terrible  bands  of  rob¬ 
bers.  In  their  work,  they  sprung  about  from  crag  to  crag, 
and,  the  mountains  echoed  with  their  calls  to  each  other,  or 
to  their  flocks  of  small,  wiry -haired  goats.  This  village  of 
Kuhrud  is  said  to  be  peopled  by  members  of  the  Bakhtieri 
tribe,  an  unsubjugated  people,  feared  throughout  Persia  for 
their  wild  and  lawless  character,  and  possessed  of  energy,  as 
displayed  in  their  agriculture  at  Kuhrud,  which  is  not  found 
among  the  people  who  may  more  truly  be  called  Persians. 

I  was  so  charmed  with  the  appearance  of  the  lonely  village, 
so  elevated  and  remote,  that  in  passing  the  mosque,  at  the 
door  of  which  stood  the  chief  moollah  of  Kuhrud,  I  ventured 
to  offer  congratulations  upon  the  industry  of  his  flock.  But 
his  reverence  received  my  advances  in  a  very  surly  manner, 
and  we  passed  on  to  the  chapar-khanah,  which  was  placed  in 
a  grove  of  fruit-trees.  There  was  only  just  room  between  the 
door -way  and  a  stream  descending  from  the  higher  mount¬ 
ains  to  jDlace  the  takht-i-rawan  for  the  night.  We  were  oft¬ 
en  obliged  to  display  this  much  of  confidence  in  the  honesty 
of  the  people,  and  we  never  suffered  for  it.  The  doors  of 
the  chapar-khanahs  were  rarely  wide  or  high  enough  to  ad¬ 
mit  the  takht-i-rawan,  which  was  therefore  of  necessity  left 
outside,  in  a  country  where  it  is  by  no  means  uncommon  to 
rob  doors  and  window-frames  for  fire-wood.  The  tired  mules 


A  PEESIAN  INTEEIOE. 


231 


rolled  off  to  a  caravanserai  which  was  clos.e  at  hand,  and  we 
entered  the  post-house,  the  yard  and  roof  of  which  were  cov¬ 
ered  with  snow  and  ice.  Just  inside  the  strong*  g*ates  of 
wood  there  was  the  usual  small,  dark,  cavernous  chamber, 
mud -plastered  within  and  without,  lighted  only  by  the  nar¬ 
row  door-way,  in  which  of  course  there  was  no  door,  and  by 
a  nine -inch  circular  smoke -hole  in  the  roof.  Into  this  our 
servants  and  soldiers  carried,  as  usual,  the  saddles,  bridles, 
luggage,  stores,  and  cooking  utensils.  There  was  the  ordi¬ 
nary  furniture— that  is;  a  pile  of  wood  ashes  in  the  centre, 
and  a  few  large  stones  from  the  bed  of  the  stream  outside,  to 
be  fashioned,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  occupiers,  into  a  grate. 

All  chapar-khanahs  are  more  or  less  alike,  and  the  only  pe¬ 
culiarity  in  this  was  that  the  bala-khaiiah,  the  room  above  the 
gate  -  way,  was  smaller  than  usual.  The  high  steps,  with  an 
average  rise  of  eighteen  inches,  leading  from  the  horse-yard 
to  the  flat  roof  of  the  stables,  on  the  level  of  which  the  bala- 
khanah  is  placed,  were  broken,  and  fearfully  slippery.  Our 
servant  had  swept  the  snow  away,  and  this  had  perha]3S  in¬ 
creased  the  difficulty  of  ascent.  On  the  roof  we  had  to  walk 
through  snow  to  the  wretched  eyrie  in  which  we  were  to  pass 
the  night.  But  we  thouglit  ourselves  in  great  luck  on  finding 
that  the  fire-place  did  not  smoke  very  much,  and  that  it  was 
possible  to  have  a  fire.  The  room  was  so  small  that  when  our 
beds  were  set  up,  and  our  two-feet- six  table  extended,  we 
found  it  necessary  that  one,  at  least,  should  sit  on  a  bed. 
Wherever  on  the  smoke-stained  wall  there  was  a  trace  of  the 
original  whitewash,  we  could  see  the  scribbling  of  Persians. 
Those  Persians  who  can  write  are  very  much  given  to  compo¬ 
sition  upon  the  walls  of  the  bala-khanah ;  and  in  a  country 
where  the  renewal  of  whitewash  is  rarely,  if  ever,  thought  of, 
they  thus  secure  for  their  scribbling  the  notice  of  at  least  a 
generation. 

Comfort,  after  all,  is  comparative ;  and,  spite  of  the  snow, 


232 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJ^. 


which  lay  deep  and  white  up  to  our  door-ways,  and  the  cloths 
of  pressed  camel’s  hair,  which  were  all  that  stood  in  these 
wide  apertures  between  us  and  the  inclement  night,  w'e  began 
to  think  ourselves  not  in  very  bad  circumstances  when  the 
blaze  of  the  logs  roared  up  the  narrow  chimney,  and  glowed 
on  the  colors  of  our  carpets  and  our  coverlets,  which  ap¬ 
peared  of  startling  magnificence  in  a  mud  hovel  so  mean  and 
earthy,  with  walls  and  floor  like  the  surface  of  a  country  road. 
The  beams  of  the  flat  roof  were  rough,  unshapen  poles,  cut 
from  the  Kuhrud  wood,  and  laid  from*  wall  to  wall,  the  grass 
and  brush-wood,  upon  which  the  outside  roofing  of  mud  was 
laid,  showing  between  them,  with  a  plentiful  hanging  of  cob¬ 
webs  ;  the  whole  being  nearly  black  with  smoke  from  the  fires 
of  past  occupants,  who  had  not  cared  to  clear  the  chimney 
before  setting  light  to  their  wood.  This  is  very  necessary ; 
for,  as  I  have  said,  in  Persia  it  is  a  common  practice  to  block 
the  flue  with  bricks  or  stones  after  the  fire  has  been  lighted 
for  some  time,  and  a  body  of  red  ashes  has  been  collected. 

We  were  looking  for  the  early  arrival  of  Kazem  with  the 
soufe'"’ — which  appears  to  be  Persian  for  soup  —  when  we 
heard  the  trot  of  a  horse  outside,  and  a  servant  announced 
the  arrival  of  Mr.  Bruce,  the  English  missionary,  whom  we 
had  met  in  Teheran,  and  whose  guests  we  were  to  be  in  Ispa¬ 
han.  Mr.  Bruce  has  the  first  and  most  indispensable  qualifi¬ 
cation  for  successful  life  in  Persia — he  is  a  good  ami  a  bold 
rider.  When  he  lifted  our  camel’s-hair  door,  we  were  sorry 
to  see  that  his  arm  was  in  a  sling,  and  his  face  badly  wound¬ 
ed.  His  horse  had  fallen  on  a  stony  slope,  and  he  was  much 
bruised.  The  missionary  was  dressed  as  Europeans  generally 
dress  on  the  road :  he  wore  high  riding-boots  with  spurs,  and 
breeches,  a  strong  short  coat  wdth  a  leather  waist-belt,  and  a 
wide  -  awake  "with  a  puggree,”  or  turban,  of  white  muslin. 
We  were  delighted  to  see  him.  Kazem  soon  produced  a 
saucepan — our  only  tureen — half  full  of  nearly  boiling  soup. 


KAZEM  AS  A  COOK. 


233 


Any  other  mode  of  bringing  it  to  the  table  would  have  in- 
volv’ed  failure,  in  the  icy  atmosphere  through  which  he  had  to 
pass.  A  chicken  and  rice  came  next ;  and  Kazem,  to  my  sur¬ 
prise,  declared  that  he  had  cutlets  of  mutton  quite  ready,” 
and  an  omelet  to  follow.”  He  had  accomplished  all  this,  in¬ 
cluding  potatoes,  with  nothing  but  three  big  stones  for  his 
fire-place.  His  dark  eyes  glowed  with  pride  as  he  produced 
the  unlooked-for  cutlets  and  the  omelet.  Like  all  Persian' 
servants,  he  felt  it  a  matter  of  honor,  when  a  guest  arrived, 
to  have  plenty  of  dinner,  and  would  have  thought  nothing  of 
“requisitioning”  mutton  or  eggs  in  the  village  or  caravan¬ 
serai. 

Mr.  Bruce  was  “  chaparing  down,”  in  Anglo-Persian  phrase, 
to  Ispahan,  riding  fifty  to  seventy  miles  a  day.  People  trav¬ 
eling  “caravan,”  as  we  were,  would  take  more  than  three 
times  as  long  .as  he  on  the  road  between  Teheran  and  Ispa¬ 
han.  He  had  no  luggage  except  a  small  bundle,  wrapped  in 
a  water-proof  sheet,  and  carried  on  his  saddle :  this  included 
a  bag  which,  when  he  stopped  for  the  night  at  a  chapar- 
khanah,  was  stuffed  with  straw,  and  formed  the  usual  bed  of 
Europeans,  who  wish  to  “chapar”  quickly  through  the  coun¬ 
try.  The  chapar  horse  he  had  ridden  from  the  last  post- 
house,  and  that  of  the  attendant,  were  put  up  at  Kuhrud  for 
the  night,  and  would  return  in  the  morning.  How  merry  we 
were,  laughing  at  the  dessert  served  in  dishes  of  paper,  at 
the  service  of  cups  for  wine,  and  at  the  missionary’s  amusing 
stories  of  his  life  in  Afghanistan  and  Persia ! 

It  was  bitterly  cold  an  hour  before  sunrise,  when  we,  in 
our  warm  beds,  heard  Mr.  Bruce  setting  oft  for  Ispahan,  his 
horse’s  hoofs  clattering  on  the  hard  frozen  ground.  The 
morning  light  showed  the  imperfections  of  our  door;  and 
from  my  pillow  I  had  an  uninterrupted  view  of  the  snowy 
exterior  through  the  spaces  in  which  our  hangings  did  not 
touch  the  door-way.  Outside,  the  takht-i-rawan  was  frozen 


234 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAYAJJ-. 


to  the  ground,  and  needed  the  united  efforts  of  the  escort  to 
detach  it.  The  mules  slij)ped  and  slid;  the  cold  wind  was 
piercing,  as  we  rode  from  the  village  up  toward  the  summit 
of  the  pass,  the  horses  cracking  at  every  footstep  through  the 
thin  ice  which  had  been  formed  in  the  night  from  the  melted 
snow  of  the  previous  day.  Up  the  shallow  valley  we  rode 
for  an  hour  between  the  ridges  of  the  mountains ;  no  part  of 
the  soil  was  visible ;  all  was  snow  and  ice.  My  riding-boots 
of  stout  leather  seemed,  in  presence  of  the  wind,  as  if  they 
were  made  of  the  thinnest  kid,  or  even  muslin.  The  top  of 
the  pass  is  eight  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and 
near  us  were  the  peaks  of  Derman,  or  Girghish,  of  Kisteh, 
and  of  other  high  mountains,  the  lowest  of  which  rises  to 
more  than  eleven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea-level.  Uear 
the  summit  there  was  not  even  a  track.  The  way  to  Ispahan 
lay  over  a  rocky  hill,  at  sight  of  which  every  body  dismounted, 
and  all  began  to  scramble  anyhow  over  the  stones,  the  horses 
being  left  to  their  own  unassisted  judgment  as  to  the  way. 

At  nine  o’clock  the  sun  was  very  hot,  the  path  sloj^py,  and 
the  glare  upon  the  snow  painful.  Among  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  we  rode  for  some  hours,  making  at  last  a  very 
small  descent  to  the  telegraph-ofiice  at  Soh,  where  we  were  to 
pass  the  night.  This  w'as,  as  usual,  a  walled  inclosure,  with 
a  single  opening,  a  door  on  the  south  side,  near  which  stood 
the  clerk,  an  Italian,  and  the  inspector,  a  Scotch  sergeant  of 
Engineers.  Both  Signor  Castaldi  and  Sergeant  MacGowaii 
spoke  English  —  one  with  the  accent  of  Tuscany,  the  other 
with  that  of  an  Aberdonian.  They  gave  us  a  large  room, 
which  had  a  door,  and  clean  matting  on  the  floor,  on  which 
our  servants  quickly  arranged  our  beds  and  carpets.  With 
the  thermometer  twenty  degrees  below  freezing-point,  it  was 
a  drawback  from  the  comfort  of  this  house  that,  to  dine  with  _ 
the  kind  and  hospitable  Mrs.  MacGowan,  we  had  to  walk 
through  the  snowy  yard. 


235 


“the  blue  man.” 

Ill  the  morning  it  was  too  cold  to  ride,  and  we  began  our 
journey  to  Moot-i-Khoor  on  foot.  The  view  down  the  slope, 
and  over  the  vast  plain  toward  Ispahan,  was  splendid.  Far  in 
the  distance,  beyond  the  yet  invisible  city,  there  was  another 
chain  of  mountains ;  and  through  a  gap  in  these  we  could  see 
a  hill,  which  Sergeant  MacGowan  told  us  (and  afterward  we 
proved  the  fact  for  ourselves)  was  not  less  than  a  hundred 
and  ten  miles  from  where  we  then  stood. 

Of  our  soldier  attendants,  we  named  two,  who  were  favor¬ 
ites,  “  the  Blue  Man  ”  and  “  the  Green  Man,”  from  the  color 
of  their  dress ;  the  former  was  particularly  agile  and  hand¬ 
some.  He  could  run  up  a  very  steep  hill  almost  as  quickly 
as  an  antelope,  though  loaded  with  his  rifle,  his  pistol,  and 
short  sword,  to  say  nothing  of  powder-flask  and  ramrods, 
which,  in  the  most  primitive  fashion,  were  carried  separately. 
Soon  after  leaving  Soh,  we  saw  him  upon  the  craggy  slope 
above  our  heads,  and  heard  the  report  of  his  rifle.  Down  he 
came  with  what  he  called  “  a  wild  duck,  in  his  hand, 

which  he  offered  to  the  lady  in  the  takht-i-rawan,  and  looked 
somewhat  astonished  at  her  unwillingness  to  handle  a  dying 
and  bleeding  bird.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  European  travel¬ 
ers  to  forbid  their  guards  to  fire  en  route  except  at  an  enemy, 
and  for  this  we  heard  at  least  three  good  reasons.  The  re¬ 
port  of  a  gun  may  be  a  signal,  prearranged  between  soldiers 
of  the  guard  and  robbers ;  at  all  events,  it  informs  any  rob¬ 
bers  who  may  be  near  of  the  arrival  of  a  caravan,  and  so  at¬ 
tracts  attention  ;  and  again,  by  emptying  the  gun,  it  for  a 
time  deprives  the  soldier  of  the  use  of  his  weapon,  and  in  case 
of  sudden  attack  leaves  him  unarmed.  But  I  never  inter¬ 
fered  with  the  sporting  tendencies  of  “the  Blue  Man.”  FTor 
could  wo  always  be  thinking  of  the  dangers  of  the  road.  Its 
beauties  were  far  more  apparent;  the  rich  coloring  of  morn¬ 
ing  and  evening  light;  the  boundless  space  which, while  he  is 
passing,  is  all  the  traveler’s  own,  in  which  he  may  ride  where 


236 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


he  will.  It  is  very  rarely  that  a  patch  is  fenced,  and  the  oases 
in  the  neighborhood  of  villages  are  few  and  far  between. 

The  sun  was  high  when  we  reached  the  plain.  On  the 
bare,  brown  wilderness  there  rose,  about  four  miles  off,  a 
broken  wall,  the  ruin  of  a  chapar-khanah,  and  a  small  shrine, 
the  tomb  of  some  departed  sheik.  Beside  these  buildings  we 
were  to  make  the  usual  midday  halt,  and  Kazem’s  mule  ex¬ 
hibited  his  common  obstinacy  and  performed  his  customary 
2:>as  seul,  when  required  to  hasten  on  in  front  of  the  caravan. 
The  mule  kicked,  turned  round  and  round,  but  nothing  could 
dislodge  the  merry  little  Persian.  At  last  a  soldier  under¬ 
took  to  drive  it  before  him,  and  Kazem  was  soon  trotting  on 
to  light  a  fire.  Having  brought  us  through  the  mountains 
from  Kashan,  a]id  into  the  territory  of  his  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  Governor  of  Ispahan,  the  soldiers  were  now  to 
leave  us.  We  gave  them  a  present  of  money,  with  which 
they  were  evidently  delighted,  and  a  note  to  the  Governor  of 
Kashan  stating  that  they  had  left  us  in  safety  on  the  road  to 
Moot-i-Khoor.  This  I  wrote  at  their  especial  request,  which, 
in  its  urgency,  reminded  me  of  that  of  a  Hindoo  ayah,  who, 
in  traveling  toward  England,  from  Alexandria  to  Kaples,  was 
overwhelmed  with  astonishment  at  the  sight  of  Vesuvius. 
When  it  was  explained  to  her  that  the  mountain  was  smok¬ 
ing  from  natural  causes,  she  exclaimed,  ‘‘  Mem  sahib,  do  give 
me  a  ‘  chit  ’  [a  note]  to  say  that  I’ve  seen  it.”  She  evidently 
felt  sure  that  none  of  her  own  people  would  believe  in  her 
account  of  a  volcano  if  she  could  not  produce  a  “  chit  ”  from 
her  mistress. 

The  village  of  Moot-i-Khoor  is  closely  surrounded  by  a 
high  wall,  above  which  nothing  was  visible  but  the  green 
dome  of  a  small  mosque.  The  chapar-khanah  and  caravanse¬ 
rai  were  the  only  buildings  outside  the  walls.  I  deplored  the 
cold  chiefly  because  the  temperature  was  unfavorable  for  the 
enjoyment  of  Ispahan  melons,  the  perfection,  the  ne  plus  id- 


VILLAGE  OF  GEZ. 


237 


tra^  of  fruit.  It  seems  an  error  on  the  part  of  nature  that 
this  golden  fruit,  so  luscious  and  refreshing,  ripening  late  in 
the  autumn,  should  be  for  sale  when  to  eat  a  melon  makes 
one’s  teeth  chatter.  But  at  Moot-i-Khoor,  before  a  larf^e  fire, 
I  did  manage  to  enjoy  the  larger  part  of  a  melon,  and  carried 
the  outside  to  my  horse,  who  seemed  to  think  he  had  not  met 
with  any  thing  so  good  for  many  a  day.  Upon  leaving  Moot- 
i-Khoor,  we  had  but  one  more  station  before  reaching  Ispa¬ 
han  ;  and  after  riding  about  one  farsakh,  on  the  way  to  Gez, 
we  passed  a  caravanserai  three  hundred  feet  square,  which, 
though,  for  a  Persian  building,  in  excellent  repair,  was  quite 
deserted.  We  had  met  with  an  official  at  Teheran,  upon 
whose  caravan  a  band  of  robbers  rushed  out  from  this  cara¬ 
vanserai.  We  therefore  eyed  it  with  some  anxiety;  but 
when  we  arrived  there  was  not  a  living;  creature  to  be  seen, 
and  nobody  could  explain  the  cause.  One  supposed  it  was 
left  thus  desolate  because  it  was  so  near  Moot-i-Khoor,  and 
therefore  obtained  no  custom ;  another  said  something  about 
evil  spirits  ;  but  to  the  charvodar  it  appeared  possible — and 
his  was  the  wisest  opinion — that  it  had  been  built  without 
thought  of  water  supply,  and  had  been  abandoned  because  no 
water  could  be  had  at  a  less  distance  than  four  miles ;  and, 
moreover,  nothing  would  grow  in  the  neighborhood.  Much 
of  the  ground  round  about  was  covered  with  white  salt, 
which  in  the  morning  looked  like  hoar-frost,  and  had  the  un¬ 
pleasant  flavor  of  saltpetre.  There  was  nothing  remarkable 
or  unusual  at  Gez,  which  is  only  sixteen  miles  from  the  city 
of  Ispahan. 


238 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


)  CHAPTER  XVI. 

Ispahan. — Approach  by  Koad. — Suburbs  of  Ispahan. — A  Eagged  Bazaar. — 
Departed  Greatness. — The  Grand  Avenue. — The  Great  Madrassee. — 
Eiver  Zayinderud. — Pipes  on  the  Bridge. — Djulfa-by-Ispahan. — Kussia 
and  the  Armenians. — Gate  of  Djulfa. — The  English  Missionary. — Mr. 
Bruce’s  House. — Armenian  Women. — The  British  Agent. — Church  Mis¬ 
sionary  School. — Armenian  Priests. — Enemies  of  the  School. — Visit  to 
the  Governor. — The  Prince’s  Carriage. — “  The  Eorty  Columns.” — The 
Prince’s  Anderoon. — The  Shah’s  Eldest  Son. — His  Estimate  of  the 
Army. — Zil-i-Sultan. — His  Hope  and  Fears. — His  Court  at  Ispahan. — 
His  Carte-de-Visite. — The  Princess’s  Costume. 

The  Persians  rave  about  Ispahan  as  Spaniards  do  of  Sev¬ 
ille,  or  Italians  of  Xaples.  Isfahan  nisfjahdn'’'*  (“  Ispahan 
is  half  the  world  ”),  says  one  writer ;  and  Hakim  Shefa’ee,  a 
poet  of  Ispahan,  has  taken  even  a  higher  flight.  He  has 
sung : 

“The  moving  heaven  of  heavens  is  the  father,  and  the  towers  of  the  earth 
the  mother  ; 

But  Ispahan,  their  famous  child,  surpasses  both  the  one  and  other.” 

When  we  were  about  three  miles  from  the  city,  we  over¬ 
took  a  party  of  priests.  Several  of  them  were  mounted  on 
white  donkeys,  and  some  were  persevering  in  their  desire  to 
see  the  occupant  of  the  takht-i-rawan.  While  we  were  rid¬ 
ing  beside  them,  an  incident  occurred  which  shows  in  a  very 
striking  manner  how  little  intercourse  there  is  between  the 
chief  towns  of  Persia,  or,  rather,  how  ill-adapted  the  paths 
(there  are  no  roads)  are  for  much  traffic.  A  muleteer  com¬ 
ing  from  Ispahan  reported  that,  for  purposes  of  irrigation,  a 
new  water-way  had  been  banked  up  across  the  track,  and  at 


APPROACH  TO  ISPAHAISr. 


239 


oncG  we  all  turned  into  wheat-fields,  and  made  our  way  round 
by  circuitous  courses.  On  the  main  track  there  were  many 
bridges.  But  there  are  bridges  and  bridges  :  these  were  Per¬ 
sian  bridges,  of  which  the  most  common  form  is  a  lono*  stone 
thrown  from  bank  to  bank,  over  which  only  one  animal  could 
pass.  The  larger  bridges  of  brick  were  in  such  a  state  of 
dilapidation  that,  with  less  careful  animals,  or  at  night-time,  it 
would  be  highly  dangerous  to  cross  them.  The  mules  seem 
to  know  that  these  are  traps  well  calculated  to  break  their 
legs,  and  avoid  the  holes  in  these  crazy  bridges  with  wonder¬ 
ful  care. 

W e  had  heard  much  of  Ispahan,  and  were  dismayed  at  the 
wretchedness  and  ruin  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  in  the 
general  view  of  which  from  the  level  of  the  plain  there  was 
nothing  to  be  seen  that  was  not  of  mud,  except  the  few  domes 
and  towers,  which  rose  but  little  above  the  low  houses.  The 
environs  of  Ispahan  are  dotted  with  a  cordon  of  round  tow¬ 
ers.  These  are  not  high,  or  in  any  way  extraordinary ;  and 
one  would  pass  them  with  the  notion  that,  like  the  village 
defenses  throughout  Persia,  they  were  suitable  fortifications 
against  enemies  who  had  no  artillery.  But  these  are  pigeon 
towers,  maintained,  in  the  interests  of  the  melon-gardens,  for 
the  guano,  which,  after  a  season  of  occupation  by  hundreds 
of  t^igeons,  is  found  inside  the  doors  at  the  base.  Like  every 
thing  else  in  Persia,  these  towers  are  falling  into  decay ;  and 
there  are  but  few  pigeons.  Time  was  when  there  were  many, 
and  when  the  melon-growers  of  Ispahan  paid  a  considerable 
rent  for  each  tower. 

A  stranger  to  Persian  ways  and  means  seeing  us  fording 
water-courses,  winding  round  ruined  walls,  passing  between 
miserable  sheds  scarcely  eight  feet  apart,  would  hardly  sup¬ 
pose  that,  by  the  most  frequented  route,  we  were  entering 
the  chief  city  of  the  Persian  Empire.  The  main  street  of 
Coomassie  was,  according  to  the  sketches  of  correspondents, 


240 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


hardly  more  barbarous  than  the  ragged  bazaar  through  which 
we  rode  in  the  suburbs  of  Ispahan ;  in  fact,  we  were  remind¬ 
ed  by  it  of  the  picture  we  had  seen  in  the  Illustrated  London 
News  of  Coomassie.  Not  a  few  of  the  people  were  of  the 
color,  and  almost  as  naked,  as  the  Ashantees.  The  ragged 
roof  of  boughs  and  straw,  which  was  intended  to  cover  the 
way,  but  the  result  of  which  was  to  checker  the  path  with 
patches  of  sunlight,  was  supported  by  saplings  just  as  they 
were  brought  from  plantations  by  the  river-side,  and  the  road 
was  such  as  it  had  pleased  the  population  to  make  it.  Some 
used  it  as  a  sewer ;  others  had  thrown  earth  from  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  their  stalls  upon  it.  In  some  places  there  were  230ols 
of  filthy  water,  with  a  bed  of  mud,  into  which  our  horses’  feet 
sunk  deep ;  then  hillocks  which  jerked  the  unwary  rider  in 
his  saddle.  There  was  improvement,  not  in  the  road -way, 
but  in  the  buildings  of  the  bazaars,  as  we  approached  the  cen¬ 
tre  of  the  town.  We  avoided  the  principal  bazaars,  owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  passing  through  with  the  takht-i-rawan. 
At  last  we  entered  by  a  narrow  gate-way  upon  the  grand  av¬ 
enue,  which,  though  itself  a  ruin,  and  in  a  city  which  is  for 
the  most  part  in  ruins,  remains  the  glory  of  Ispahan. 

From  near  the  centre  of  the  town  for  half  a  mile  this  ave¬ 
nue  slopes  in  straight  lines  to  the  river.  Six  rows  of  large 
l^lane-trees,  many  with  signs  of  great  age  and  of  approaching 
dissolution,  overshadow  as  many  roads.  I  was  about.to  write 
that  at  the  sides,  along  the  walls,  are  footpaths ;  but  in  Per¬ 
sia  there  are  no  footpaths,  or,  rather,  all  ways  are  footpaths. 
The  raised  paths  at  the  side  may  have  been  specially  designed 
for  foot-passengers;  but  in  a  country  where  there  is  no 
wheeled  traffic,  and  where  no  one  who  is  of  the  higher  classes 
is  ever  seen  far  from  home  on  foot,  there  are,  properly  speak¬ 
ing,  no  footpaths,  no  2)lace  in  which  a  horse,  or  mule,  or  cam¬ 
el  is  not  free  to  walk.  The  greater  part  of  the  avenue  is 
paved ;  but  nearly  a  century  must  have  elapsed  since  any  thing 


THE  GREAT  MADRASSEE. 


241 


has  been  done  to  repair  or  replace  the  huge  stones  which,  in 
their  present  disarrangement,  make  the  road  far  worse  than 
it  would  be  if  there  was  no  paving  whatever.  The  central 
road  of  the  avenue  is  interrupted  at  three  places  by  tanks, 
the  masonry  of  which  is  now  in  ruins.  These  tanks  hold  no 
water  except  the  stagnant  rain  or  melted  snow ;  and  where 
the  tanks  occur,  the  long  straight  line  of  wall  at  the  sides  of 
the  avenue  is  broken  with  buildings,  irnarets,  large  summer¬ 
houses,  with  two  or  three  apartments  elevated  above  the  wall, 
covered  with  a  timber  roof  with  large  projecting  eaves.  In 
this  roof,  as  well  as  in  the  highly  colored  decoration,  there  is 
fresh  evidence  of  the  relationship  between  the  architecture  of 
Persia  and  that  of  the  Alhambra  of  Granada. 

About  half-way  down,  on  the  left  hand,  as  we  approached 
the  river,  we  came  to  the  Madrassee^  or  great  mosque-school 
of  Ispahan,  which  has  the  most  notable  dome  in  the  city. 
The  building  itself  is  unimportant,  constructed,  as  usual,  of 
sun-baked  bricks,  and  plastered  with  mud.  There  is  some 
decoration,  composed  of  colored  bricks  and  tiles ;  but  the 
dome,  seen  far  and  wide  upon  the  plain,  is  perhaps  the  finest 
example  of  tile-work,  and  the  most  lamentably  striking  pict¬ 
ure  of  ruin,  in  Persia.  Originally  it  was  covered  with  tiles, 
on  which  the  prevailing  colors  are  blue  and  yellow.  The 
scroll-pattern  is  so  large  that  it  extends  over  two  yards  of  the 
tiling,  occupying  a  great  number  of  tiles  for  its  complete  ex¬ 
hibition,  About  two-thirds  of  the  tiling  are  in  excellent  con¬ 
dition  ;  the  colors  bright,  the  pattern  regular,  and  the  effect 
cliarming ;  but  from  the  remaining  third,  on  the  south  side, 
tlie  tiles  have  completely  disappeared,  and  the  bare  bedding 
of  brown  cement  is  exposed.  For  generations  it  has  been  so; 
and  there  is  no  prospect  of  repair.  No  Persian  seems  to  give 
a  thought  to  the  preservation  of  the  buildings  of  the  country. 

At  the  end  of  the  avenue  —  in  which  the  foot-fall  of  our 
horses  and  mules  had  that  peculiar  hollow  sound,  so  melan- 

11 


242 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


choly  and  so  suggestive  of  departed  greatness — a  sound  sin¬ 
gular  and  solemn,  which  is  always  the  reverberating  accom¬ 
paniment  of  the  horseman  in  a  scene  of  mingled  grandeur  and 
decay — the  roads  converge  to  the  bridge,  a  long,  straight  via¬ 
duct  upon  high,  semicircular  arches  of  brick,  by  which  we 
crossed  the  river.  This  stream,  the  Zayinderud — a  beautiful 
feature  in  the  view  of  Ispahan  —  is  a  river  with  no  outfall. 
Prodigal  of  its  waters  from  the  beginning,  flowing  hither  and 
thither  upon  the  plain  in  half  a  dozen  courses,  wastefully  All-- 
ing  shallow  basins  from  which  the  sun  carries  off  its  waters, 
and  in  winter  claiming  a  bed  wide  enough  for  ten  times  the 
flow,  tapped  at  every  turn,  and  its  waters  led  away  to  irrigate 
fields  and  gardens,  the  gay  Zayinderud  dies  in  the  plains  to 
the  east  of  Ispahan. 

The  sides  of  the  flat  bridge  are  inclosed  with  walls  about 
twelve  feet  high,  which  would  shut  out  one  of  the  most  en¬ 
chanting  views  in  Persia,  if  they  were  not  pierced  with  small 
openings  so  frequent  that  these  boundaries  are  arcades  rather 
than  walls.  There  arg  no  paths  or  pavement  —  nothing  but 
a  level  way  upon  the  bridge.  At  either  end,  from  day  to 
day  and  year  to  year,  there  are  two  Persians  seated  on  the 
ground,  whom  at  first  we  supposed  were  placed  there  to  re¬ 
ceive  toll  from  passengers.  They  rose  at  our  approach,  and 
from  one  of  the  arches  brought  forward  a  lighted  kalian,  all 
ready  for  indulgence  in  the  favorite  form  of  smoking.  They 
make  this  advance  to  any  mounted  passenger,  and,  indeed,  to 
every  one  willing  to  pay  a  copper.  The  traveler,  if  he  pleases, 
takes  the  pipe,  and  after  smoking  from  one  end  of  the  bridge 
to  the  other,  leaves  it  with  the  second  pair  of  pipe-bearers. 
It  is  a  curious  way  of  getting  a  living,  and  reminded  me  of 
-  that  poorest  of  all  trades  in  Naples,  in  which  one  member  of 
the  family  passes  the  day  j)icking  up  the  chewed  ends  of  cigars 
in  the  Yia  de  Toledo,  now  del  Corso,  and  another  offers  this 
choice  commodity  for  sale  at  ten  for  a  half-penny  in  the  Marina,  ' 


DJULFA-BY-ISPAHAN. 


243 


At  the  farther  side  of  the  bridge  the  avenue  is  continued, 
with  the  plane-trees  and  pavement  as  before,  gently  sloping 
upward  to  its  termination  at  the  ruin  of  an  imperial  summer¬ 
house.  But  in  the  December  afternoon  we  turned  sharply  to 
the  right,  among  the  green  patches  of  young  wheat,  to  where 
the  suburb  of  Djulfa  borders  on  the  river.  This  is  the 
Christian  quarter  of  Ispahan — the  home  of  about  two  thou¬ 
sand  Armenians,  the  largest  Christian  community  in  Persia, 
who  named  it  Djulfa,  in  fond  remembrance  of  that  Other 
Djulfa  upon  the  borders  of  the  Caucasus,  in  Georgia,  from 
whence  came  the  ancestors  of  the  present  population.  Per¬ 
haps  there  is  not  in  the  world  any  more  extraordinary  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  than  that  which  is 
seen  among  Georgians  and  Armenians,  the  very  names  of 
whose  countries  have  been  wiped  out  by  Imperial  Kussia 
from  the  map,  and  whose  nationality  is  scornfully  regarded 
by  the  dominant  power.  As  a  mark  of  the  insolence  of  con¬ 
quest,  I  have  mentioned  the  monument  in  the  Saski  Place  of 
Warsaw;  but  probably  there  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  Po¬ 
land  to  equal  the  terms  of  the  proclamation  in  which  the 
Emperor  Alexander  I.  of  Russia  announced  to  the  Georgians, 
in  1801,  the  loss  of  their  independence.  “Ce  n’est  pas  pour 
accroitre  nos  forces,  ce  n’est  pas  dans  des  vues  d’interet,  ou 
pour  4tendre  les  liraites  d’un  Empire  deja  si  vaste,  que  nous 
acceptons  le  fardeau  dii  trone  de  Georgie and  the  Tsar,  in 
diplomatic  phraseology,  proceeds  to  add  that  it  is  in  order 
to  extend  to  them  the  blessing  of  Russian  Government  that 
he  has  conquered  the  people  who  are,  without  dispute,  the 
handsomest  in  the  world. 

It  was  easy  to  see  that  the  Armenians  of  Djulfa-by-Ispahan 
are  miserably  poor,  and  that  wine- shops — very  rare  in  the 
Mussulman  city  —  are  frequent  in  the  Christian  settlement. 
One  of  the  gates  of  Djulfa,  the  wooden  frame  of  which  was 
about  seven  feet  six  inches  in  height  by  five  feet  in  width. 


244 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


would  not  admit  the  takht-i-rawan,  the  top  of  which  came 
in  violent  collision  with  the  structure.  We  were  obliged  to 
unharness  the  first  mule,  and  slope  the  takht-i-rawan  to  the 
ground.  By  this  movement  we  were  just  able  to  get  inside 
the  town  of  Djulfa,  of  which  the  narrow  ways  are  utterly  un¬ 
kept,  as  indeed  is  usual  throughout  Persia  —  quagmires  of 
mud  in  the  wet  season,  irregular  blocks  of  frozen  filth  in  the 
winter,  and  noisome  dust-heaps  in  the  summer.  Through  a 
small  maze  of  mud-walls,  past  the  Armenian  cathedral,  with 
its  brown  dome,  built  of  sun-baked  bricks,  surmounted  by  a 
gilt  cross,  we  approached  the  house  of  Mr.  Bruce,  the  mis¬ 
sionary — the  only  Englishman  resident  in  this  part  of  Per¬ 
sia,  where  the  British  Government  is  represented  by  an  Ar¬ 
menian  agent,  subordinate  to  the  envoy  in  Teheran.  The 
missionary’s  house  is  thoroughly  Persian;  and  from  the 
street  in  which  we  set  down  the  takht-i-rawan  there  was 
nothing  visible  except  the  line  of  mud-wall  common  to  this 
and  the  adjoining  houses.  But  unlike  most  Persian  houses, 
the  strong  doors,  studded  with  iron  bolts,  were,  as  is  usual 
with  Mr.  Bruce’s  doors,  standing  wide  open.  In  Persian 
eyes,  the  construction  would  indeed  be  faulty  if  any  thing  of 
the  interior  could  be  seen  through  this  one  opening  of  com¬ 
munication  with  the  outer  world.  There  is  always  a  turn  in 
the  dark,  covered  entry.  We  had  been  met  outside  the  town 
by  one  of  Mr.  Bruce’s  servants,  Kalifat  by  name,  an  intelli¬ 
gent  youth,  mounted  on  a  white  pony,  who  could  speak  En¬ 
glish  with  some  readiness,  and  was  himself  inclined  to  walk 
in  the  ways  of  the  Anglican  Church.  Before  the  door  of  the 
house  stood  the  missionary — the  centre  of  a  small  crowd  of  his 
Armenian  neighbors — no  longer  booted  and  spurred,  but  all  in 
clerical  black,  with  orthodox  white  tie,  a  man  who  deserves 
as  much  as  any  one  in  Persia  a  brief  description  of  the  char¬ 
acter  and  personal  influence  which  he  brings  to  bear  upon  so 
wide  and  desolate  a  field  of  action.  Tall  and  spare,  with  the 


THE  ENGLISH  MISSIONAKY. 


245 


keen  eye  and  the  strong  hand  of  one  accustomed  to  rural  life 
from  childhood,  frank  in  face,  and  with  winning,  well-bred 
manner,  Mr.  Bruce  is  quite  an  exceptional  missionary.  One 
sees  at  a  glance  that  the  man  is  by  nature  a  theological  sol¬ 
dier  with  a  particular  taste  for  religious  warfare  in  the  re¬ 
motest  places  of  the  earth.  Capable  of  enduring  immense 
fatigue,  accustomed  in  boyhood  to  more  or  less  reckless  rid¬ 
ing  ill  an  Irish  county,  gentle  in  temper,  firm  and  broadly 
liberal  in  argument,  with  gustatory  tastes  so  simple  that  the 
worst  of  Afghan  or  Persian  fare  is  always  sufficient,  a  labori¬ 
ous  scholar,  already  better  acquainted  with  Persian  dialects 
than  any  other  of  our  countrymen  in  Persia,  the  one  mission¬ 
ary  in  that  empire  is,  in  his  way,  a  remarkable  man. 

On  passing  through  the  covered  entry,  we  came  upon  the 
quadrangle  of  his  house,  in  the  centre  of  which  there  were 
bunches  of  the  pretty  little  flower  which  at  home  we  call 
Michaelmas  daisy,”  and  the  invariable  tank.  A  paved  ter¬ 
race  surrounded  the  square  patch  of  garden,  on  the  side  of 
which  next  the  street  were  three  rooms  of  the  house.  The 
first,  a  vaulted,  whitewashed  chamber,  about  five-and-thirty 
feet  long,  had  two  doors  opening  upon  the  narrow  terrace. 
This  answered  to  what  in  English  farm-houses  is  called  the 
“keej)ing”  room — ^at  once  drawing-room,  dining-room,  and 
library.  The  missionary’s  books,  all  of  them  more  or  less 
relating  to  his  calling,  were  ranged  in  those  recesses  which 
are  always  constructed  in  the  walls  of  Persian  rooms.  The 
only  decoration  was  a  native  painting  of  queer  animals,  with 
some  likeness  to  birds,  over  the  fire-place,  upon  the  floor  of 
which  there  was  a  cheerful  fire  of  logs.  Between  this  and  a 
similar  apartment,  occupied  by  ourselves,  there  was  an  inter¬ 
mediate  and  smaller  room,  which,  like  the  others,  opened 
upon  the  terrace,  and  in  front  of  which  wo  had  always  to 
pass  under  the  sky  in  going  from  our  apartment  to  the 
‘^cecping”  room.  On  the  right  of  the  quadrangle,  which 


246 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


was  perhaps  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet  square,  there  were 
the  kitchen  offices,  and  a  small  staircase,  leading  first  to  an 
anteroom,  and  through  that  to  the  grand  room  of  the  house, 
which  was  used  as  a  chapel. 

The  Christian  subjects  of  Mohammedan  powers  always 
adopt,  to  some  extent,  the  customs  of  their  masters.  The 
Armenian  women  at  Djulfa  veil  their  chins,  and  expose  their 
painted  cheeks  and  dyed  eyebrows.  Every  morning  at  eight 
there  was  a  procession  of  these  women,  draped  from  head 
to  foot  in  coverings  of  spotless  white,  into  the  missionary’s 
room.  The  few  boys  and  men  made  a  louder  clatter,  and  all 
left  their  shoes  on  the  terrace  outside  the  door  before  they 
entered  to  hear  the  missionary  recite  prayers  and  read  the 
Bible  in  Persian ;  and  on  Sunday  many  of  these  people  came 
to  an  early  service  in  the  same  language.  They  were  men 
and  boys  exclusively  who  attended  the  afternoon  service, 
when  the  missionary  read  the  familiar  liturgy  in  English,  and 
preached  with  pleasant  simplicity  and  engaging  earnestness, 
usually,  however,  choosing  some  dogma  or  miracle,  the  truth 
of  which  he  declared  in  detail  with  much  of  the  minuteness 
and  determination  of  the  school  of  Calvin.  To  hear  and  to 
appreciate  the  labors  of  Mr.  Bruce  expounding  to  converted 
Armenians  the  indispensable  connection  between  ‘Hhe  cove¬ 
nant  of  circumcision  made  with  Abraham  ”  and  the  crucifix¬ 
ion  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  very  instructive  as  to  the  strength 
and  the  weakness  of  the  teaching  of  dogmatic  Christianity. 

The  British  agent,  an  Armenian,  named  Agenoor,  was  the 
first  person  to  call  upon  us.  I  gave  him  a  letter  addressed  to 
himself  by  his  official  chief  in  Teheran,  and  another  from  the 
grand  vizier  addressed  to  the  Prince -governor  of  Ispahan, 
which  I  requested  him  to  forward  to  his  royal  highness,  who 
is  the  eldest  son  of  the  Shah.  Mr.  Agenoor  is  a  respectable 
but  timid  little  man,  who  seems  to  gain  all  the  strength  he 
has  from  his  connection  with  the  British  Government.  A 


CHUECH  MISSIONAEY  SCHOOL. 


247 


walk  through  Londoiij  or  a  sight  of  the  British  fleet  iu  Turk¬ 
ish  waters,  would  strengthen  his  nerves.  England  is  to  him, 
and  to  many  such  who  are  placed  in  positions  of  much  im¬ 
portance,  powerful  only  by  report,  while  the  Mohammedan 
authority  surrounds  them  as  an  existing  reality,  and  the  mis¬ 
ery  of  their  fellow-Christians  is  before  them  as  an  ever-pres¬ 
ent  warning.  There  are  many  disadvantages  in  the  repre¬ 
sentation  of  Great  Britain  by  members  of  the  subject  Chris¬ 
tian  races  of  the  East. 

We  visited  the  missionary’s  school,  in  which  we  were  soon 
afterward  to  take  an  unexpected  interest.  We  were  much 
pleased  with  the  excellence  of  the  teaching  and  its  admirable 
results.  The  class-rooms  were  in  a  house  adjoining  that  of 
Mr.  Bruce,  and  very  similar  in  construction.  The  school¬ 
master,  Kalifat  Johannes,  was  a  native  of  Djiilfa,  who  had 
for  years  enjoyed  the  position,  to  gain  which  is  the  chief  mo¬ 
tive  power  in  all  self-improvement  among  these  Armenians. 
He  had  been  in  India,  and  had  there  learned  the  art  of  tui¬ 
tion.  In  the  Hjulfa  school  there  were,  at  the  time  of  our 
visit,  a  hundred  and  thirty-one  pupils,  of  whom  all  but  three 
Mussulman  children  were  Armenians.  The  poor  people  of 
Djulfa  warmly  appreciated  the  benefits  of  this  school  for 
their  boys  as  a  means  of  enabling  their  children  to  emigrate 
from  poverty-stricken  Persia  to  India,  from  whence  there 
flowed  back  rills  of  pecuniary  aid  to  embarrassed  parents  in 
Djulfa.  Eeligious  conformity  with  the  tenets  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  of  Great  Britain,  by  which  the  school  was 
entirely  maintained,  was  not  enforced  as  a  test  of  admission. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  the  children  so  educated  did 
find  their  way  on  Sunday  to  join  with  their  school-master  in 
Mr.  Bruce’s  services,  but  not  all ;  and  there  were  even  chil¬ 
dren  of  Armenian  priests  among  the  pupils. 

The  satisfaction  of  the  people  with  the  school  was  not,  how¬ 
ever,  sliared  by  the  priests  of  the  Armenian  population,  nor 


248 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


by  the  Roman  Catholic  priest,  who  rules  a  dwindling  com¬ 
munity  in  Djulfa.  There  are  no  fewer  than  sixteen  priests, 
including  a  bishop  of  the  Armenian  Church,  in  this  wretched 
suburb ;  and  all  these,  with  their  families,  have  to  obtain  a 
living,  as  unproductive  creatures,  from  the  piety  of  a  popu¬ 
lation  little  above  beggary.  Naturally  they  are  more  than 
dubious  as  to  the  advantage  of  training  the  boys  of  Djulfa 
in  schools  established  by  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
with  the  probable  result  of  making  them  Anglicans  in  relig¬ 
ion,  and  the  likelihood  that  the  flower  of  them,  the  most 
iwomising  of  the  future  wealth-makers  of  Djulfa,  will  leave 
the  valley  of  the  Zayinderud  and  emigrate  to  British  India. 
There  could  be  no  more  obvious  menace  to  their  means  of 
living ;  and  to  these  poor  jDriests  it  is  the  more  aggravating, 
because  there  is  nothing  that  each  one  of  them  so  much  de¬ 
sires  for  himself  as  to  be  sent  to  minister  to  some  Armenian 
flock  in  the  land  of  rupees.  They  say  that  the  Armenian 
bishop  never  sends  a  priest  to  India  who  does  not  first  lay  at 
his  ei^iscopal  feet  an  offering  of  fifty  tomans  ;  and  if  any  kind 
person  were  to  give  an  Armenian  priest  of  Djulfa  the  sum  of 
twenty  pounds,  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  it  would  find  its  way 
to  the  bishop,  so  that  the  giver  might  obtain  translation  to 
India.  ^ 

For  some  time  past,  Mr.  Bruce  told  us,  the  school  had  been 
regarded  as  an  offense  by  the  priests  of  Djulfa,  who,  con¬ 
scious  of  their  own  political  insignificance,  had  not  scrupled 
to  arouse  Mohammedan  feeling  by  denouncing  the  school  to 
the  moollahs  as  an  English  engine  for  the  destruction  of  Is¬ 
lam.  In  this  evil  work,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  priest  lent  a  willing  hand ;  and  perhaps  it  was  not 
unnatural  he  should  do  so  when  he  compared  his  miserable 
school  with  the  comparatively  bountiful  appliances  of  that 
ruled  by  the  English  missionary. 

We  had  forwarded  our  letters  of  recommendation  to  the 


THE  prince’s  carriage.  249 

prince-governor,  who  immediately  sentferashes  to  the  mission¬ 
ary’s  house  to  be  my  personal  attendants  during  our  stay  in  Is¬ 
pahan.  It  was  quite  in  accordance  with  Persian  custom  that 
I  should  give  them  a  present  and  send  them  back,  as  I  did. 
On  the  day  upon  which  the  prince  was  to  receive  us,  more 
servants  arrived,  and  brought  news  that  the  prince’s  carriage 
was  on  the  way  in  order  to  convey  my  wife  to  visit  the  prin¬ 
cess.  We  knew  that  the  gate  of  D3ulfa,  which  had  stopped 
the  takht-i-rawan,  would  not  admit  a  carriage;  we  therefore 
hired  mules  and  set  out,  a  large  party,  including  the  British 
agent  and  the  missionary,  our  servants  and  those  of  the  prince, 
all  on  horseback,  surrounding  the  takht-i-rawan.  When  we 
arrived  in  the  open  fields  by  the  river,  there  stood  the  prince’s 
carriage,  drawn  by  two  white  horses,  the  manes  and  tails  of 
which  were  dyed  a  lively  red.  They  had  spots  of  the  same 
color  upon  the  forehead,  which,  if  they  had  been  men,  would 
have  given  them  the  look  of  a  clown  at  a  circus.  As  for 
the  carriage  itself,  in  hardly  any  sale-yard  in  London  could 
such  a  wretched  rattle-trap  be  found.  The  lining  was  torn, 
and  hung  in  large  rectangular  rents,  and  this  was  only  the 
most  striking  “  note  ”  of  the  general  condition  of  the  vehicle. 
It  w^as  not  inviting;  but  the  anxious  British  agent  thought 
the  prince  would  be  offended  if  “  the  lady  ”  did  not  make  use 
of  the  carriage.  So  the  change  w'as  made,  and  my  wife  had 
an  opportunity  of  learning,  by  painful  experience,  why  it  is 
that  wheeled  carriages  are  not  used  in  Persia.  The  postilion 
set  off  delighted.  The  barb -like  horses  switched  their  red 
tails  and  dashed  down  a  steep  place  into  the  river,  the  car¬ 
riage  banffine:  about  over  the  bowlders  in  the  bed  of  the  Zay- 
inderud,  to  the  satisfaction  of  no  one  but  the  postilion,  hfo 
doubt  it  was  as  good  as  any  other  road,  and  perhaps  he  rare¬ 
ly  got  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  powers  as  a  chariot¬ 
eer.  We,  however,  caught  him,  and  compelled  him  to  walk 
his  horses  for  the  rest  of  the  way ;  but  even  this  pace  over 

11'^ 


250 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAIST. 


the  stones  of  the  avenue  was  described  by  the  unfortunate 
occupant  of  the  carriage  as  being  almost  unendurable. 

We  stopped  at  a  mud-wall  in  which  there  was  a  gate,  not 
large  enough  to  admit  the  carriage,  and  all  dismounted  be¬ 
cause  my  wife  was  obliged  to  do  so.  Above  the  gate-way  a 
patch  of  the  mud  was  smooth  and  whitened.  On  this  was 
painted  a  large  heraldic  lion,  with  his  head  in  the  rays  of  a 
gilded  sun,  the  sign  of  Persian  royalty.  We  had  some  dis¬ 
tance  to  walk  to  the  palace  through  ill-kept  grounds,  in  which 
there  were  many  plane-trees.  The  low  buildings  of  the  palace, 
in  the  distance,  were  in  no  way  attractive.  They  presented  a 
long,  straight  wall  toward  the  garden,  divided  in  panels,  cov¬ 
ered  with  fine  white  plaster,  and  decorated  in  fantastic  pat¬ 
terns,  colored  red,  blue,  and  yellow.  About  the  centre  of  the 
grounds,  there  was  a  building  which  is  regarded  as  one  of  the 
sights  of  Ispahan.  It  is  a  pavilion,  the  roof  supported  at  a 
height  of  about  fifty  feet  by  twenty  columns  of  wood,  the  oc¬ 
tagonal  surfaces  of  these  columns  being  covered  with  mirrors. 
The  floor  was  of  various  colored  marbles,  and  the  roof,  which 
was  fast  falling  into  decay,  was  highly  colored  in  kaleido¬ 
scopic  patterns. ,  The  building  is  known  as  “The  Forty  Col¬ 
umns,”  and  was  probably  constructed  to  be  used  as  an  out¬ 
door  throne-room  for  “  the  Shadow  of  God.”  There  is  in  it 
an  admixture  of  the  barbaric  and  the  tawdry,  which,  together 
with  the  unsubstantial  character  of  the  building,  are  the  usual 
characteristics  of  Persian  architecture.  At  a  distance  the  ef¬ 
fect  is  very  pleasing,  and  one  sees  that  “  The  Forty  Columns  ” 
would  play  a  grand  part  in  Persian  pageantry;  but,  nearer, 
the  illusion  vanishes.  The  floor  is  unwashed,  the  mirrors  are 
grimy,  the  tall,  slender  columns  are  awry,  and  the  roof  is  fall¬ 
ing  to  pieces. 

During  the  short  time  we  staid  at  “The  Fortv  Columns,”  a 
number  of  people,  only  some  of  whom  were  of  the  prince’s 
household,  gathered  round  us,  and  not  a  few  followed  toward 


THE  PEINCE’s  AOTEROON. 


251 


the  palace.  In  a  theocratic  governmentj  which  is  the  real  nat¬ 
ure  of  authority  in  all  Mohammedan  countries,  one  notes  the 
mixture  of  democracy  with  absolute  authority.  There  are 
two  powers — that  of  Allah  and  that  of  the  Shah,  ruling  in  the 
name  of  Allah,  and  in  strict  accordance  with  his  will  as  re¬ 
vealed  in  the  Koran.  In  the  sight  of  Allah,  all  men  are  equal ; 
and  among  men,  none  are  great  save  those  who  wield  his  pow¬ 
er.  Servants,  peasants,  beggars,  all  went  with  us  toward  the 
presence  of  the  prince.  Kot  one  of  these  people  would  under¬ 
stand  exclusion,  except  as  an  arbitrary  exercise  of  power ;  not 
one  would  resent  it,  because  he  who  has  power  may  do  what 
he  pleases ;  and  if  the  prince  had  singled  out  any  one,  and 
ordered  the  ferashes  to  give  him  a  hundred  sticks,”  there 
would  have  been  no  outcry  of  injustice.  But  until  repelled, 
they  feel  they  have  as  much  right  to  be  in  the  governor’s 
room  as  the  flies  which  buzz  about  his  head. 

We  separated  in  the  first  court  of  the  palace,  my  wife 
being  led  to  the  “  anderoon,”  or  harem,  the  women’s  quarter, 
while  I  passed  to  the  rooms  of  the  prince.  He  was  not  there, 
and  I  was  received  by  members  of  his  household,  including 
his  hakim,  or  doctor,  an  agreeable  young  man,  who  spoke 
some  French.  The  prince  was,  in  fact,  taking  an  unfair  ad¬ 
vantage  of  me,  and  availing  himself  of  the  customs  of  the 
East  and  West.  While  it  would  have  been  in  the  highest 
degree  improper  for  me  to  propose  a  visit  on  my  own  part 
to  the  anderoon,  the  prince,  with  laudable  curiosity,  received 
my  wife  there,  and  himself  presented  her  to  his  wife,  the  only 
one  whom  he  had  then  married.  A  pipe  was  passed  round 
while  we  waited  for  his  highness,  and  those  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  who  could  not  crowd  into  the  corners  of  the  little  room 
watched  us  through  the  open  door -way.  It  was  presently 
announced  that  the  prince  was  ready ;  and  we  passed  through 
another  court,  the  doors  of  which  were  covered  with  cotton 
hangings,  and  up  two  high  steps  into  a  narrow  passage,  in 


252 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


which  stood  a  servant  sui^porting  the  hangings  before  the 
door- way  of  the  room  in  which  the  Governor  of  Ispahan  was 
seated.  There  was  a  clatter  of  shoes,  which  were  left  in  a 
heap  on  the  threshold,  and  the  prince,  a  youthful  likeness  of 
liis  father,  rose  from  his  arm-chair  to  shake  hands  with  me, 
and  to  place  me  in  the  chair  next  to  himself.  He  has  exactly 
the  bold,  dark  eye  of  the  Shah,  which  I  am  told  is  the  family 
feature  of  the  Kajar  tribe;  and  his  face,  though  hardly  so 
pleasing,  has  the  same  look  of  good-nature,  with  evidence  of 
an  unexhausted  appetite  for  enjoyment  and  consciousness  of 
arbitrary  power.  The  breast  of  his  frock-coat  was  covered 
with  jewels,  his  waist-belt  blazed  with  rubies  and  diamonds, 
and,  when  he  resumed  his  seat,  he  laid  across  his  knees  a 
richly  jeweled  sword.  He  had  plainly  placed  himself  for  the 
occasion  in  full  dress,  and  was  anxious  to  escape  from  his  load 
of  jewels. 

Our  conversation  proceeded  in  the  usual  way.  I  said  that, 
having  had  the  honor  of  meeting  his  majesty  the  Shah  at 
several  entertainments  in  London,  I  felt  very  happy  in  being 
thus  kindly  received  in  Persia  by  his  eldest  son,  who  so  much 
resembled  his  majesty. ,  The  prince  replied  with  an  unmean¬ 
ing  flourish  of  compliments,  and  then  expressed  his  fear  that 
we  found  traveling  in  Persia  very  difficult.  “There  is  no 
railway,”  he  said,  in  a  tone  which  seemed  to  repeat  the  appar¬ 
ent  belief  of  the  Governor  of  Kashan  that  Englishmen  and 
railways  were  inseparable.  He  never  said  a  word  to  indicate 
that  he  had  seen  my  wife,  and  that  he  had  just  left  her  in 
the  anderoon ;  that  would  have  been  a  breach  in  the  code  of 
Persian  manners.  “  Here  we  have  every  thing  as  from  nat¬ 
ure,”  he  observed,  when  I  told  him  that  we  had  enjoyed  our 
journey  the  more  because  there  were  no  railways.  I  spoke 
of  the  physique  of  the  Shah’s  soldiers.  “Yes,”  he  said,  “Al¬ 
lah  be  praised,  the  army  is  very  good ;  my  father  has  five 
crores  [a  Persian  crore  is  500,000]  of  soldiers.”  He  uttered 


THE  ZIL-I-SULTAN'. 


253 


this  monstrous  exaggeration  so  quietly  that  one  could  see  he 
was  utterly  ignorant  of  the  real  meaning  of  numbers.  He 
attributed  every  thing  to  Allah.  It  vras  Allah’s  will  that  Per¬ 
sia  should  be  afflicted  with  famine,  therefore  it  was  useless  to 
take  means  against  it;  but  his  father  had  given  two  or  three 
millions  of  tomans  (another  tremendous  exaggeration)  in  re¬ 
lief,  and  “  now,  mashallah !  there  was  no  famine.” 

The  dialogue  was  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  a  richly 
jeweled  kalian,  from  which,  after  I  had  refused  it,  the  prince 
drew  a  few  puffs  of  smoke.  It  then  passed  away,  and  in  the 
corridor  I  could  see  that  the  attendants  were  handing  about 
this  royal  pipe  among  themselves  with  a  freedom  which  is 
certainly  Oriental.  The  prince  was  much  inclined  to  talk; 
but,  with  one  exception,  I  had  always  to  start  the  subject  of 
conversation.  That  exception  was  Don  Carlos,  in  whose  con¬ 
test  for  the  crown  of  Spain  the  prince  evidently  took  intense 
interest.  He  asked  me  how  many  men  Don  Carlos  had,  and 
expressed  an  earnest  hope  that  this  pretender  would  soon  be 
in  Madrid.  I  fancy  there  was  something  of  a  personal  char¬ 
acter  in  the  feeling  he  had  for  Don  Carlos,  and  that  he  was 
thinking  of  himself,  and  of  the  imperial  throne  of  Persia, 
while  he  followed  with  such  curious  ardor  the  fortunes  of  the 
civil  war  in  Spain.  < 

This  eldest  son  of  the  Shall,  who  is  now  about  twenty-seven 
years  of  age,  is  known,  and  is  always  spoken  of,  by  the  title 
Zil-i-Sultan  ”  (Shadow  of  the  King),  a  title  of  honor  given 
him  by  his  father,  the  Shadow  of  God.”  But  though  first¬ 
born,  he  is  not  crown -prince.  In  Persia,  the  Shah  names 
whom  he  pleases  as  his  successor ;  and  his  majesty  has  long 
since  designated  his  son  by  his  second  wife  to  that  position, 
and  has  confirmed  the  heirship  by  informing  the  powers  of 
his  selection,  and  by  making  this  second  son  Governor  of  Ta¬ 
briz,  a  position  always  held  by  the  heir  to  the  throne.  The 
reason  given  for  passing  over  the  natural  claims  of  the  Zil-i- 


254  THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

Sultan  is  one  usually  accepted  in  Persia  as  quite  sufficient — 
he  is  not,  and  his  brother  is,  the  son  of  a  princess.  But  the 
Zil-i-Sultan  is  a  vigorous,  violent,  headstrong  young  man,  ac¬ 
customed  from  his  earliest  manhood  to  hold  in  his  hands  virt¬ 
ually  irresponsible  power  of  life  and  death — a  being,  in  his 
own  opinion,  and  in  the  eyes  of  his  followers,  superior  to  all 
laws ;  a  bold  sportsman,  with  the  ambition  to  be  a  warrior ; 
a  man  with  abundant  capacity  for  matching  the  cruelties  with 
which  the  pages  of  Persian  history  are  red ;  and  yet  the  bad 
rearing,  the  indulgence  of  untaught  self-will,  which  has  devel¬ 
oped  his  very  strong  natural  impulses  into  tyrannical  ferocity, 
has  not  bereft  him  of  genial  good-humor,  the  natural  accom¬ 
paniment  of  high  health,  so  evident  as  to  win  for  him  some 
devoted  followers,  and  to  please  all  to  wh'om  he  wishes  to  be 
gracious. 

He  is  supposed  not  to  acquiesce  in  the  devolution  of  the 
crown  upon  his  brother’s  head,  and  is  said  to  have  expressed 
his  determination  to  fight  for  it  upon  his  father’s  death.  But 
his  vagaries,  which  have  been  many  and  serious,  are  held  to 
have  destroyed  any  chance  of  success  which  his  undoubtedly 
superior  vigor  might  have  given  him.  ISTo  man  better  under¬ 
stands  that  which  failure  involves,  even  upon  suspicion  of  an 
attempt  in  this  line.  Blindness,  with  perhaps  some  other  mu¬ 
tilation,  or  death,  is  the  lot  of  rivals  of  the  Kajar  tribe  when 
the  successful  one  attains  supreme  power ;  and  in  Persia  it 
is  not  as  in  Europe — flight  is  unthought  of.  Outside  Persia 
there  is  no  world  for  fugitives  of  royal  blood. 

While  we  were  taking  coffee,  I  had  leisure  to  observe  the 
surroundings  of  the  Zil-i-Sultan.  At  his  feet  sat  an  old  mool- 
lah,  one  of  the  great  religious,  authorities  of  Ispahan,  who 
seemed  to  consider  that  any  attention  on  his  part  to  what 
was  going  on  would  be  an  improper  subtraction  from  his  duty 
to  Islam.  His  bright  eyes  were  overshadowed  with  a  huge 
white  turban ;  he  sat  on  his  heels,  and,  I  am  sure,  lament- 


THE  princess’s  COSTUME. 


255 


ed,  as  a  sign  of  decadence,  the  elevation  of  the  prince  and 
that  of  liis  visitor  in  chairs.  Beside  the  prince  stood  his  vi¬ 
zier,  or  vakeel,  a  man  dressed  as  one  of  high  authority,  and 
with  a  face  full  of  intelligence  and  power.  My  servant,  Ka- 
zem,in  right  of  his  position,  had  squeezed  himself  into  the  lit¬ 
tle  room,  and  squatted  in  a  corner :  there  were  a  few  others, 
including  the  British  agent,  who  acted  as  interpreter,  and  Mr. 
Bruce.  When  I  rose  to  leave,  the  prince  called  for  pen  and 
ink,  and  wrote  his  name  and  mine  on  the  back  of  a  photo¬ 
graphic  likeness  of  himself,  which  he  presented  to  me  as  a 
souvenir ;  and  then,  after  shaking  hands,  turned  to  the  mis¬ 
sionary,  and  desired  him  to  remain.  Intelligence  was  con¬ 
veyed  to  the  anderoon,  and  my  wife  returned  to  me,  attended 
by  two  negroes,  the  peculiar  guardians  of  that  place,  men  of 
horrible  ugliness.  She  had  been  received  very  kindly  by  the 
princess,  who,  with  bare  legs,  was  seated  upon  cold  pavement, 
which  had  but  a  thin  covering  of  cloth.  Her  highness’s  face 
was  painted  with  red  and  black,  not  in  tints,  but  in  large 
patches ;  and  though  a  young  woman,  she  had  that  greatest 
of  beauties  in  a  Persian  lady — excessive  obesity.  Her  two 
black-eyed  children  were  introduced,  and  the  usual  refresh¬ 
ments  were  provided. 


256 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CAEAVAN^. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Zil-i-Siiltan. — Order  about  the  School. — Not  Responsible  for  Murder. 
— Telegraph  to  Teheran.— Reports  and  Rumors. — Excitement  in  Djulfa. 
— Closing  the  British  School. — Relapse  of  Fever. — Letter  from  the  Prince. 
— Persian  Compliments. — Prescriptions  by  Telegraphs. — A  Persian  Doc¬ 
tor. — Persian  Medical  Treatment. — Persian  Leeches. — The  Prince’s  Ha¬ 
kim. — His  Letter  of  Introduction. — His  Newspaper  and  Autobiography. 
— The  Prince  and  the  Province. — A  Son  of  a  Moollah. — “The  Sticks.” 
— How  Punishment  is  Given. — A  Snow  Torture. — A  Persian  Dinner¬ 
party. — Before  Dinner. — An  Englishman’s  Legs. — A  Great  Khan. — The 
First  Course. — Les  Pieces  de  Resistance. — Going  Home. 

Mes.  Arnold  had  such  painful  experience  of  the  Zil-i-Sul- 
tan’s  carriage,  that  we  hoped  she  would  not  return  in  it,  and 
had  sent  a  servant  to  bring  up  the  takht-i-rawan ;  but,  as  we 
afterward  learned,  the  mules  were  not  easily  found,  and  we 
had  to  leave  as  we  arrived,  wdth  my  wife  in  the  carriage.  Mr. 
Bruce  joined  us  in  about  twenty  minutes.  I  was  anxious  to 
know  the  cause  of  the  missionary’s  detention.  He  was  evi¬ 
dently  very  much  disturbed.  He  told  us  that,  after  I  had  left 
the  room,  the  Zil-i-Sultan  had  said  to  him,  in  presence  of  the 
moollah  and  the  vakeel,  and  indeed  of  all  who  remained,  that 
his  school  had  caused  much  complaint,  and  that  it  must  be 
closed  at  once.  Mr.  Bruce  asked  the  reason  for  this  sudden 
order.  Then  the  prince  began  a  rambling  statement  made  up 
of  the  accusations  he  had  heard  from  all  sides :  the  mission¬ 
ary  had  boasted  of  having  converted  a  Mussulman ;  there 
were  Mussulman  children  in  the  school;  the  teachers  were 
not  good  men ;  he  or  they  had  said  that  the  Virgin  Mary  was 
just  like  other  women ;  the  Armenian  priests  had  said  the 
school  was  doing  harm  in  Djulfa;  in  short,  the  Zil-i-Sultan 


NOT  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  MURDER. 


257 


would  not  have  it ;  the  school  must  be  closed.  His  highness 
concluded  by  turning  to  the  officer  who  had  charge  of  his  re¬ 
lations  with  aliens  in  religion  and  allegianccj  and  saying,  “You 
see  that  this  is  done,  or  Til  cut  your  ears  off.”  This  officer, 
whose  place  is  an  established  one  in  the  imperial  system  of 
Persia,  bowed,  and  Mr.  Bruce  endeavored  to  excuse  his  school. 
“  It  is  quite  free,”  he  said ;  “  no  one  is  constrained  to  attend, 
and  to  the  people  of  Djulfa  it  is  a  very  great  benefit.”  “Free !” 
shouted  the  Zil-i-Sultan,  with  a  show  of  the  native  Kajar  ti¬ 
ger — “free !  No  one  is  free  except  my  father  and  me.  If  I 
please  that  the  people  shall  not  go  to  school,  and  grow  up  bar¬ 
barians,  that  is  my  affair.”  He  would  hear  no  more.  But 
Mr.  Bruce  is  a  persevering  man,  and  still  he  argued  that  his 
school  ought  not  to  be  closed,  and  intimated  that  he  could  not 
obey  the  order.  “  If  you  are  murdered,”  replied  the  prince — 
with  cruelly  thoughtless  exposure  of  this  good  man’s  life  to 
the  fanaticism  of  all  who  heard  him,  and  all  to  whom  his 
words  were  to  be  reported — “  I  shall  not  be  responsible.” 

And  so  the  interview  ended ;  the  fanaticism  of  Ispahan  en¬ 
couraged  to  attack  and  murder  the  British  missionary,  and 
his  school  to  be  closed.  It  was  a  dangerous  position,  not  only 
for  Mr.  Bruce,  but  in  a  less  degree  for  ourselves.  The  Amer¬ 
ican  mission  schools  in  Teheran  and  Tabriz  have  never  been 
molested  by  the  Shah’s  Government,  and  the  missionary  nat¬ 
urally  felt  most  unwilling  to  close  this,  the  only  British  school 
in  Persia.  We  agreed  that  it  would  be  best  not  to  close  the 
school  until  there  was  further  pressure,  amounting  to  force, 
from  the  prince ;  and  Mr.  Bruce  determined  that  the  pupils 
should  be  received  next  day  as  usual.  We  had  just  settled 
this  when  the  takht-i-rawan  came  in  sight,  and  on  the  Zayin- 
derud  bridge,  after  enduring  the  pavement  of  the  avenue,  we 
dismissed  the  carriage,  having  first  satisfied  the  clamor  of  its 
five  attendants  for  “  pishkish.” 

On  arriving  at  Mr.  Bruce’s  house,  we  immediately  arranged 


258  THROUGH  PERSIxi  BY  CARAVAN. 

a  long  telegram  to  tlie  British  minister  in  Teheran,  informing 
Mr.  Thomson  of  the  prince’s  order  and  of  his  invitation  to 
murder,  requesting  that  immediate  steps  might  be  taken  to 
secure  Mr.  Bruce’s  personal  safety  and  to  enable  him  to  con¬ 
tinue  the  useful  work  of  his  school.  We  had  not  long  to  wait 
for  evidence  that  the  Zil-i-Sultan’s  rash  sjDeech  was  known 
throughout  all  Ispahan,  ^^ext  morning  an  Armenian  came  in, 
full  of  the  news.  A  report — and  a  very  accurate  report — of 
the  prince’s  words  was  circulating  in  Djulfa,  with  embellish¬ 
ments  of  Persian  flavor.  This  man  said  he  had  heard  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  padre,”  the  Armenian  bishop,  and  the  chief 
sheik  of  Ispahan,  had  given  the  prince  two  hundred  tomans 
as  the  price  of  the  order  for  the  closing  of  the  school,  and 
that  Mr.  Bruce,  who  is  popularly  regarded  as  a  rich  man  be¬ 
cause  he  aided  very  largely  in  obtaining  and  distributing  the 
Persian  Famine  Relief  Fund,  had  since  capped  their  bribe  by 
the  larger  one  of  six  hundred  tomans,  for  which  sum  the  Zil- 
i-Sultan  had  agreed  to  put  three  of  the  missionary’s  enemies 
to  death. 

Throughout  the  day,  many  of  the  pupils  were  absent  from 
the  school,  and  by  evening  the  order  of  the  prince  and  his 
threat  of  “  the  sticks  ”  to  the  parents  of  those  who  disobeyed 
were  known  to  all.  The  school  was  nearly  deserted,  and  the 
Christian  people  of  Djulfa  very  fearful  of  outrage  by  the  Mus¬ 
sulmans.  The  excitement  was  intense;  and  in  the  circum¬ 
stances  Mr.  Bruce  thought  it  his  duty,  for  the  preservation  of 
peace  and  order,  to  close  the  school.  In  the  ordinary  course 
of  events,  the  Christmas  holidays  would  have  commenced  in 
ten  days;  and  on  closing  the  school,  he  affixed  a  notice  upon 
the  doers  announcing  that  the  vacation  would  begin  ten  days 
earlier  than  usual. 

Unfortunately,  I  was  at  this  time  in  bed  suffering  a  serious 
relapse  of  fever,  accompanied  with  the  most  agonizing  rheu¬ 
matic  pains.  For  a  fortnight  I  could  not  put  my  feet  to  the 


LETTER  FROM  THE  PRINCE. 


259 


ground.  I  fell  ill  within  a  few  hours  after  leaving  the  palace. 
The  Zil-i-Sultan  had  quitted  Ispahan  for  his  favorite  hunting- 
grounds  at  Margj  a  chapar-khanah  in  the  mountains,  about 
twelve  miles  distant.  On  the  day  after  our  interview,  the 
controller  of  his  palace  arrived  at  Mr.  Bruce’s  house,  followed 
by  two  slaves,  who  carried  a  large  antelope  tied  to  a  pole, 
the  ends  of  which  rested  on  their  shoulders.  It  was  the  first- 
fruit  of  the  prince’s  sporting  expedition,  very  kindly  sent  to 
me  as  a  present.  With  the  venison  the  prince-governor  sent 
a  letter,  in  Persian,  which  is  a  very  interesting  specimen  of 
polite  letter-writing  in  a  country  where  it  is  a  breach  of  good 
manners  not  to  employ  compliments,  and  of  good  sense  to  take 
them  for  more  than  mere  words.  I  am  quite  sure  his  royal 
highness  would  not  object  to  see  his  letter  in  English  print: 

“Exalted  in  Dignity,  Companion  of  Honor,  Mr.  Ar¬ 
nold  ! — In  the  first  place,  I  write  to  inquire  after  your  health, 
and  am  extremely  desirous  that  your  time  should  be  spent 
happily,  and  that  you  should  enjoy  good  health  and  peace, 
especially  during  your  sojourn  in  Ispahan.  You  should,  with¬ 
out  fail,  visit  the  ancient  buildings  of  this  place,  which  are  the 
memorials  of  mighty  kings  who  had  their  wars,  their  cares, 
and  pleasures  in  this  world,  and  against  their  wills  left  this 
earth  and  have  passed  away.  Yow,  here  are  we  remaining 
behind,  and  what  Allah  may  decree  concerning  us — 

“  It  would  have  given  me  much  pleasure  to  have  remained 
in  the  city,  that  I  might  fully  enjoy  your  society,  for  you  ap¬ 
peared  to  me  to  be  a  perfect  man  and  well-informed.  I  shall 
return  on  Saturday. 

“  I  should  be  delighted  if  you  could  come  to  these  hunt¬ 
ing-grounds,  and  see  with  what  difficulty  and  courage  Persian 
horsemen  strike  this  kind  of  game,  for  without  doubt  it  is 
a  sight  well  worth  seeing.  The  chase  in  Persia  is  attended 
with  much  hardship,  and  is  not  as  it  is  in  Europe. 


260 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


send  you  by  my  servant  an  antelope  wliich  I  have  shot 
with  my  own  hand.  I  hope  you  will  eat  it  in  company  of 
friends. 

“  Sultan  Mazud  Mirza,  Kajar,  Zil-i-Sultan.” 

The  least  acquaintance  with  Persian  habits  of  speech  re¬ 
duces  such  extravagant  expressions  as  are  met  with  in  the 
above  letter  to  their  proper  meaning,  which  is  simply  that 
of  a  mere  flourish  of  the  pen.  To  say  in  Persian  that  Mr.  So- 
and-so  is  “  exalted”  and  “  perfect,”  means  nothing  more  than, 
or  nothing  very  different  from,  the  words  in  which  any  En¬ 
glishman,  refusing  the  prayer  of  a  humble  correspondent,  as¬ 
sures  that  suppliant  for  favor  that  he  (the  great  man)  remains 
the  “faithful  servant,”  or  the  “most  obedient  humble  serv¬ 
ant”  of  the  disappointed  place-hunter. 

In  thanking  the  prince  for  his  letter  and  present,  I  did  not 
feel  able  to  allude  to  his  arbitrary  decree  concerning  the 
school,  and  soon  I  became  much  too  ill  to  leave  my  bed. 
There  was  no  English  doctor  nearer  than  Teheran  on  one 
side  and. Shiraz  on  the  other,  a  ride  of  a  week  for  any  one 
who  “  chapared”  hard  either  way.  MTe  sent  an  account  of 
my  condition  by  telegraph  to  Pr.  Baker,  the  medical  super¬ 
intendent  of  the  Indo- Persian  Telegraph,  and  with  prompt 
kindness  he  prescribed  by  “  wire.”  As  for  medicine,  there 
was  fortunately  a  small  supply  of  that  he  recommended,  at 
the  telegraph-office  in  Ispahan,  but  he  also  ordered  immediate 
application  of  leeches,  and  accordingly  we  dispatched  Ka- 
zeni  in  search  of  those  live  lancets  which  seem  common  to  all 
countries.  There  had  been  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  in  the  night, 
which  lay  white  and  deep  about  the  doors  and  windows  of 
my  bedroom.  Kazem  returned  with  tidings  of  a  man  re¬ 
nowned  for  the  application  of  leeches,  who  was  to  follow 
him.  Presently  the  hakim  himself  arrived  with  his  box  of 
leeches,  an  old  man  with  a  long  beard  dyed  a  most  fiery  red. 


A  PERSIAN  DOCTOR. 


261 


his  eyes  deeply  sunken,  his  head  covered  with  the  drab  skull¬ 
cap  of  the  country ;  his  outer  garment  of  sheep-skin,  fitting 
loosely  over  a  long  tunic  of  blue  cotton;  the  lower  part  of 
his  legs  was  bare,  and  almost  as  dark  in  color  as  the  woven 
socks  which  covered  his  feet.  His  shoes  were,  of  course,  left 
outside  the  door,  and  his  tread  was  noiseless  as  that  of  a  cat. 

The  ideas  of  a  Persian  doctor  are  few.  He  relies  most 
conspicuously  upon  the  aid  of  Allah,  whom  he  invokes  every 
minute,  and  at  every  step  in  his  proceedings.  He  has  a  de¬ 
cided  tendency  to  blood-letting,  and  a  delight  in  strong  medi¬ 
cines.  In  a  morning’s  walk  through  the  streets  of  Ispahan, 
we  have  often  seen  the  snow  blood-stained,  as  if  slaughter 
had  been  done  in  these  public  places.  Sometimes  we  saw, 
in  passing,  the  actual  operation,  a  patient  extending  his  bare 
arm  in  the  street  for  the  barber’s  lancet.  We  inquired  of 
several  why  they  were  thus  bled?  One  replied  that  he  had 
a  cold ;  another  that  he  had  a  pain  in  his  stomach ;  a  third 
that  his  head  ached,  and  so  on.  Perhaps  it  may  be  said 
without  error,  that  such  drastic  treatment,  whether  purga¬ 
tive  or  phlebotoraic,  will  remove,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
a  hundred,  the  particular  sensation  which  led  the  patient  to 
the  doctor.  It  is  not  for  us  to  assess  the  amount  of  subse¬ 
quent  injury  or  physical  deterioration.  The  probability  is 
of  itself  alone  sufiicient  to  account  for  the  high  esteem  in 
which  ignorant  people  hold  strong  treatment,  a  regard  al¬ 
ways  exhibited  with  inverse  ratio  to  the  education  and  en¬ 
lightenment  of  people.  In  a  country  like  Persia,  every  En¬ 
glishman  is  tempted  to  play  the  doctor ;  to  Persians  the  mere 
sight  of  a  European  seems  to  suggest  a  cry  of  ^‘Dvor/  dvorP 
(medicine!  medicine!).  We  have  met  with  sufferers  from 
ophthalmia  who  shouted  the  word  as  ,  they  laid  fingers  on 
their  eyes,  and  who  turned  away  with  disgust  when  we  rec¬ 
ommended  a  plentiful  application  of  water,  the  neglect  of 
which  is  half  the  cause  of  that  terrible  and  disabling  disease. 


262 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


My  Persian  had  something  of  the  manner  of  an  English 
medical  man,  though  with  a  gravity  which  does  not  belong  to 
Europe.  “  He  had  seen  w^orse  cases,”  and  “  inshallah  !”  (God 
willing !)  he  would  make  me  better.  I  felt  interested  in 
seeing  what  there  would  be  of  novelty  in  his  simple  work. 
He  prescribed  a  hot  bran  mash  to  be  used  as  a  vapor-bath, 
and,  before  applying  the  leeches,  provided  himself  with  a 
quantity  of  the  tinder  of  burned  linen,  in  which  he  placed 
the  utmost  faith  for  stopping  undue  bleeding  from  the  leech 
bites.  He  did  his  work  well;  came  on  three  consecutive 
days  to  see  how  it  was  progressing;  and  when  asked  to 
name  his  own  remuneration,  mentioned  three  krans,  about 
two  shillings  and  sixpence,  with  evident  doubt  as  to  whether 
he  was  not  making  an  exorbitant  demand. 

But  we  were  to  receive  a  far  greater  medicine-man.  The 
news  of  my  illness  reached  the  ears  of  the  Zil-i-Sultan,  who 
sent  the  following  letter,  in  Persian,  by  the  hands  of  his  own 
hakim,  a  man  of  great  renown  in  Southern  Persia,  not  only 
for  medical  skill,  but  for  literary  acquirements.  There  was 
commotion  at  his  arrival  with  a  train  of  royal  servants.  He 
was  a  bright-eyed,  pleasant-looking  man,  about  six-and-thirty 
years  of  age,  dressed  in  military  uniform,  of  European  cut, 
with  the  hiffh  black  hat  of  the  Persians.  He  had  a  sword 
at  his  side  and  a  cigarette  in  his  mouth.  Throwing  off  his 
shoes  at  the  door,  he  approached  my  couch  with  a  low  bow, 
and  presented  the  prince’s  letter,  which,  upon  translation  into 
English,  ran  thus : 

Exalted  in  Dignity,  Companion  of  Honor,  Me.  Ar¬ 
nold  ! — God  knows  that  on  hearing  continually  of  your  ill¬ 
ness  I  have  been  greatly  distressed  for  two  reasons.  First, 
because  I  saw  you  were  a  good  and  perfect  man ;  and  it  is  a 
sad  thing  that  such  a  man  as  you  should  be  ill  without  any 
apparent  cause. 


HIS  LETTER  OF  INTRODUCTION. 


263 


“  Secondly,  I  could  not  in  any  wise  be  happy  that  you 
should  not  pass  your  time  pleasantly  while  you  are  in  my 
province ;  and  with  all  lowliness  of  mind  do  I  pray  and  be¬ 
seech  the  blessed  and  most  high  God,  and  those  near  his 
presence,  to  give  you  complete  restoration  to  health,  that  you 
may  leave  my  Government  in  great  happiness. 

“I  send  my  chief  doctor,  Mirza  Tagi  Khan,  colonel,  a  man 
who  has  traveled,  and  who  is  skilled  in  home  and  foreign  sci- 
ences,  to  look  to  your  health.  If  you  will  consult  him,  he  will 
have  much  pleasure  in  prescribing  for  you.  This  is  that  dis¬ 
tinguished  individual  who  cured  my  hand  when  it  was  so  bad 
that  I  had  no  hopes  that  any  one  in  the  Empire  of  Persia 
could  heal  it.  He  made  that  perfect  cure  which  you  have 
seen,  and,  inshallah !  he  will  work  as  wonderfully  in  future. 
It  was  with  that  very  hand  I  shot  the  deer  I  sent  you. 

“I  long  to  hear  of  your  recovery  and  to  enjoy  your  society. 
As  soon  as  you  are  well,  I  hope  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  a 
talk  with  you. 

Sultan  Mazud  Mirza,  Kajar,  Zil-i-Sultan.” 

Tagi  Khan  could  talk  more  French  than  any  Persian  we 
had  met  with,  and  we  made  no  objection  to  his  very  simple 
prescription  of  quassia,  wdiich  he  subsequently  sent  in  a 
queer -shaped  bottle  “corked”  with  cotton -wool.  The  Per¬ 
sians  are  badly  off  for  bottles,  and  have  no  corks.  The  bot¬ 
tles  they  make  of  very  brittle  glass,  have  small  mouths,  and 
the  cotton-wool  used  for  stopping  is,  when  necessary,  secured 
with  sealing-wax. 

Tagi  Khan  willingly  turned  the  conversation  from  my  ill¬ 
ness  to  his  own  accomplishments.  While  attending  the  Zil- 
i-Sultan,  when  the  prince  was  Governor  of  Shiraz,  he  had 
edited  a  newspaper,  of  which  twelve  copies  had  been  pub¬ 
lished.  These  he  had  bound  into  a  volume,  of  which  he  kind¬ 
ly  proposed  to  send  us  a  copy.  He  had  also  written  an  au- 


264 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


tobiography,  of  which  he  would  send  us  a  copy  containing 
his  photograph.  Both  arrived  in  the  evening.  The  news¬ 
paper  is  a  curiosity,  in  size  equal  to  two  pages  of  the  Echo 
in  its  first  and  most  prosperous  days.  Its  pages  contain,  to¬ 
gether  with  a  few  telegrams  and  extracts  from  foreign  let¬ 
ters  translated  from  European  journals,  nothing  but  accounts 
of  the  movements  of  the  Shah  and  of  the  imperial  family. 
It  is,  however,  much  better  than  nothing  at  all ;  and  when 
Tagi  Khan  came  again  to  see  us,  we  pressed  him  to  continue 
in  Ispahan  the  work  he  had  begun  in  Shiraz.  The  copy  of 
his  autobiography  is  a  beautiful  manuscript,  a  mode  of  pub¬ 
lication  which,  having  passed  away  from  Europe,  survives  in 
the  more  ancient  countries  of  Asia. 

The  Zil-i-Sultan  is  worth  looking  at  again  if  only  because 
he  is  a  fair  type  of  a  Persian  ruler.  It  is  impossible  to  be  in¬ 
sensible  to  his  good  qualities  or  blind  to  his  faults.  Perhaps 
it  may  be  said  that  while  the  former  are  natural,  the  latter 
result  from  defective  education  and  from  the  unbridled  exer¬ 
cise  of  despotic  authority.  With  the  tastes  of  a  hunter,  with 
no  idea  of  government  but  that  of  force,  with  no  shadow  of 
doubt  as  to  the  absolute  right  of  his  father  and  himself  to 
dispose,  at  their  pleasure,  of  the  liberties  and  lives,  the  proper¬ 
ty  and  relationships,  of  every  one  in  Ispahan ;  controlled  only 
by  fear  of  exciting  a  fanaticism  which  would  rise  in  a  body 
stronger  than  his  authority,  and  taught  from  infancy  to  re¬ 
gard  the  people  as  existing  only  to  make  wealth  for  the  mon¬ 
arch  and  his  officers — why  should  we  look  for  good  results 
from  the  absolute  rule  of  such  a  man?  To  me  the  prince 
seemed  a  wayward,  passionate  youth,  moved  by  strong  im¬ 
pulses,  alternately  good  and  very  bad.  Disliking,  yet  fear¬ 
ing,  the  priests  of  Islam,  utterly  untaught  as  to  the  higher 
principles  of  morality,  such  a  man’s  standard  of  right  is 
never  erect.  I  can  quite  believe  that  the  writer  of  those 
gracious,  kindly  letters  I  have  quoted  is  at  other  moments 


A  SOX  OF  A  MOOLLAH. 


265 


the  ferocious  tyrant  he  is  said  to  be  by  the  people  of  Is¬ 
pahan. 

Shortly  before  our  arrivalj  the  Zil-i-Sultan  had  displayed 
some  energy  in  opposing  the  domination  of  the  priesthoodj 
had  sent  soldiers  to  force  a  criminal  from  sanctuary,  and  had 
banished  a  sheik-priest  who,  in  his  capacity  of  judge  in  the 
Court  of  the  Imam-Juma,  had  been  guilty  of  horrible  oppres¬ 
sion.  When  we  were  riding  into  Ispahan,  we  met  this  eccle¬ 
siastic  on  his  way  into  exile,  seated  upon  a  white  donkey,  and 
attended  by  three  moollahs.  But  before  he  reached  the  first 
stage  out  from  Ispahan,  he  had  been  fetched  back,  and  rein¬ 
stated  by  the  prince,  who  had  thus  quickly  given  way  to  ec¬ 
clesiastical  influence,  and  perhaps  menace.  There  lived  in 
Ispahan  a  man,  the  son  of  a  moollah,  well  known  for  the  lib¬ 
erality,  as  we  should  say,  of  his  religious  opinions — one  who 
had  been  treated  in  a  friendly  manner  by  the  Zil-i- Sultan, 
who  is  known  to  share  his  theological  views.  To  the  horror 
of  the  sheik-priest,  this  man  wore  clothes  which  did  not  in¬ 
dicate  that  his  parents  belonged  to  the  sacred  order,  and  fre¬ 
quent  complaint  of  this  impropriety  was  lodged  at  the  palace. 
It  was  during  my  illness  that  the  prince  sent  for  this  man, 
and  bid  him  change  his  clothing,  which  his  highness  said  was 
offensive  upon  one  of  his  descent  to  the  Sheik-ul-IsIam.  The 
man,  eager  to  obey  the  wish  of  his  illustrious  friend,  departed, 
and  quickly  re  -  appeared  in  orthodox  costume.  “  Go,”  said 
the  gratified  prince,  to  the  sheik,  and  show  him  how  quickly 
you  have,  at  my  request,  conformed  to  his  desire.”  The  man 
went ;  but  immediately  upon  reaching  the  presence  of  the  re¬ 
ligious  authority,  he  was  seized  and  ordered  to  be  beaten 
with  “one  hundred  sticks.”  We  were  told  of  this  in  a  street 
of  Ispahan,  and  at  once  made  close  inquiry  into  the  truth  of 
the  story.  We  found  that  no  exaggeration  had  been  made, 
and  that  the  sufferer  had  been  so  cruelly  punished  that  for 
weeks  he  would  be  unable  to  put  his  feet  to  the  ground. 

12 


266 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Ill  Persia,  death  or  ‘^the  sticks  ”  is  the  commonest  punish¬ 
ment.  The  man,  in  the  latter  case,  is  laid  on  the  ground,  and, 
after  his  shoes  and  stockings  are  removed,  his  ankles  are  pass¬ 
ed  through  leather  loops  fastened  to  a  beam,  which  is  held 
by  two  men  at  nearly  the  length  of  his  legs  from  the  ground, 
and  by  them  is  turned  until  his  ankles  are  so  tightly  secured 
that  no  writhing  of  his  back  can  unplace  them.  Near  him 
are  laid  the  precise  number  of  sticks  to  which  he  is  sentenced. 
These  are  lithe  switches,  five  or  six  feet  long  and  rather  more 
than  half  an  inch  thick  in  the  centre.  Two  experts  —  who 
usually  wear  scarlet  coats  bound  with  black,  which  is  the 
uniform  of  the  Shah’s  executioners  —  then  take  their  places 
near  the  beam,  each  armed  with  a  stick,  with  which  they  in 
turn  belabor  the  soles  of  the  feet  until  the  stick  is  broken  too 
short  for  use.  In  the  case  above  referred  to,  the  beating  was 
continued  until  the  hundred  sticks  were  reduced  to  this  con¬ 
dition.  The  prince  was  annoyed  at  the  severe  punishment  of 
his  friend,  but  his  highness  had  to  bear  it ;  for  in  Persia,  un¬ 
less  stirred  to  unwonted  effort,  the  Shah’s  Government  is  far 
less  powerful  than  the  chief  priests  of  Islam. 

A  European  doctor,  to  his  shame  be  it  said,  talking  one 
day  with  the  Zil-i-Sultan  upon  the  interesting  topic  of  tor¬ 
ture,  suggested  an  ancient  method  which,  we  were  told,  at  once 
struck  the  prince  as  applicable  in  the  snowy  region  of  Ispa¬ 
han.  To  draw  the  teeth  of  Jews  who  refused  gifts  to  the 
Government  was  the  practice  in  days  when  the  civilization 
of  England  was  no  more  advanced  than  that  of  Persia ;  but  I 
never  heard  before  of  stuffing  a  man’s  trousers  with  snow 
and  ice  as  an  efficient  way  of  combating  his  refusal  to  pay  a 
large  demand  in  the  season  when  the  thermometer  stands — 
'  as  it  does  in  Central  Persia  —  for  months  below  zero.  We 
were  told  that  one  day  when  the  prince  was  returning  from 
hunting,  he  met  two  dervishes  on  the  road,  who  did  not  rec¬ 
ognize  or  make  way  for  him.  The  Zil-i- Sultan  at  once 


A  PERSIAN  DINNER-PARTY. 


267 


snatched  his  gun  from  a  servant,  and  wounded  the  unhappy 
dervishes — a  story  to  which  it  would  be  easy  to  add  many 
others  of  similar  im|)ort. 

I  was  invited  to  a  dinner  which  was  to  be  thoroughly  Per¬ 
sian.  It  was  a  bitterly  cold  evening,  and  the  guests  arrived 
mostly  on  mules,  and  all  wrapped  from  head  to  foot  in  furs. 
At  first,  it  does  strike  one  as  odd  to  be  received,  upon  an 
occasion  of  ceremony,  in  a  room  without  chairs  or  table — in¬ 
deed,  with  nothing  but  a  carpet.  The  room  was  high,  the 
ceiling  domed  and  painted,  and  upon  it  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  gilding  and  stalactite  ornament  such  as  is  seen  in 
the  Crystal  Palace  revival  of  the  coloring  of  the  Alhambra. 
There  were  hung  on  the  walls  several  pictures  of  women  such 
as  are  exhibited  for  view  in  the  Palais  Koyal,  and  there  were 
also  one  or  two  familiar  prints  from  the  Illustrated  London 
News.  At  a  lower  level,  there  were  some  pictures  painted  in 
Persian  style,  that  is,  crowded  with  figures,  no  regard  being 
had  to  perspective  or  to  gradation  of  color.  One  represent¬ 
ed  the  miraculous  procession  of  birds  and  beasts  into  I^oah’s 
ark,  the  rear  brought  up  by  :N'oah  himself,  whose  beard,  co¬ 
lossal  and  black  as  a  raven’s  wing,  drew  attention  to  the  far 
background. 

The  shoes  of  all  the  guests  who  were  not  European  were 
outside  the  door ;  their  overcoats  thrown  in  a  corner  of  the 
apartment,  which  was  at  once  reception  and  dining  room.  In 
a  rectangular  recess,  three  musicians,  sitting  on  the  floor,  dis¬ 
coursed  strange  song  and  music.  One  had  a  wiry  instru¬ 
ment,  resembling  a  small  guitar ;  another  produced  short 
screams  from  a  sort  of  flageolet ;  and  the  third,  who  also  con¬ 
tributed  the  chief  part  of  the  vocal  entertainment,  had  a  small 
drum.  In  the  centre  of  the  room  there  was  a  Persian  carpet 
of  many  and  beautiful  colors :  round  the  sides  were  felts, 
nearly  half  an  inch  thick,  and  five  feet  wide,  upon  which  most 
of  the  guests  sat  or  reclined. 


268 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAX. 


It  is  not  considered  good  manners  in  the  East  to  display 
much  of  one’s  legs  upon  the  carpet.  Mohammed,  the  founder 
of  Islam,  has  been  praised  by  his  biographer  because  he  never 
projected  his  legs  or  his  feet  before  company;  and  we  are 
told  that  the  prophet  showed  his  humility  of  spirit  in  never 
suffering  his  knees  to  stand  out  beyond  those  of  the  person 
with  whom  he  was  conversing.  But  an  Englishman  at  a  Per¬ 
sian  dinner  wishes  in  vain  for  the  power  of  fulfilling  the  rig¬ 
orous  demands  of  etiquette.  ^^To  sit  on  one’s  heels,  as  camels 
and  Persians  do,  requires  the  training  of  a  life-time.  No  one 
can  assume  the  fashion  for  the  first  lime  in  manhood.V  I 
found  my  legs  appearing  so  awkward  that  I  was  glad  to  hide 
the  exhibition  with  a  shawl.  The  imposing  dignity  with 
which  my  neighbor,  a  man  of  splendid  apparel  and  appear¬ 
ance,  managed  his  naked  extremities,  fondling  now  and  then 
his  toes  with  his  hands,  made  my  legs  and  booted  feet  so  very 
obvious  a  nuisance.  This  man  wore  a  robe  of  honor,  of  cash- 
mere,  which  had  been  given  him  by  the  Shah,  and  underneath 
this  garment,  upon  the  junction  of  his  green  tunic  and  loose 
trousers  of  black  satin,  his  waist  was  bound  with  a  magnifi¬ 
cent  scarf.  He  seemed  a  man  of  immense  strength ;  his  face, 
full  of  power,  was  bounded  on  the  top  by  his  black  hat,  and 
beneath  by  a  dense  beard,  dyed  with  the  same  color.  He  had 
but  one  tone  of  voice,  and  that  the  loudest  in  the  room.  He 
had,  it  was  said,  amassed  great  wealth  from  farming  the  cus¬ 
toms  in  all  the  south  of  Persia.  I  had  already  heard  of  this 
person,  and  had  met  with  some  account  of  his  transactions  in 
official  reports.  For  the  privilege  of  collecting  as  much  as 
he  could  obtain  under  the  name  of  customs  in  the  port  of 
Bushire,  the  principal  port  of  Persia,  in  the  year  18V3,  this 
khan  paid  thirty-two  thousand  tomans,  or  about  twelve  thou¬ 
sand  eight  hundred  pounds.  None  but  his  dependents  are 
employed  in  obtaining  the  revenue ;  there  is  no  interference 
of  any  sort  by  employes  of  the  Government,  and  no  returns  or 


A  GREAT  KHAN. 


269 


reports  are  required  of  any  of  his  transactions.  In  these  cir- 
cumstanceSj  surely  it  was  mild  language  which  the  British 
resident  at  Bushire  used  in  reference  to  this  monstrous  abuse 
of  fiscal  authority,  when  he  wrote  to  the  Indian  Government 
that  “  the  system  is  felt  to  be  inconvenient  by  traders.” 

Having  disposed  of  my  intrusive  limbs,  I  asked  my  neigh¬ 
bor  on  the  other  side  something  more  about  this  man,  and  he 
told  me  it  was  notorious  he  had  begun  life  as  a  robber,  and 
that  his  greatest  success  in  that  line  had  been  in  connection 
with  a  royal  caravan.  ''  But,”  said  he,  the  khan  has  bad 
times.  I  met  him  the  other  day  coming  from  Teheran,  and 
he  looked  so  miserable  that  I  at  once  believed  I  had  heard  a 
correct  account  of  his  visit  to  the  capital.  He  is  obliged  to 
pay  so  much  every  year  to  the  imperial  revenue,  but  occasion¬ 
al  contributions  are  forced  at  Teheran  by  threats  of  loss  of 
ofiice,  or  of  the  sticks.” 

The  khan  was  roaring,  the  singers  twanging,  piping,  drum- 
ming,  and  shouting  monotonous  love  -  songs,  when  the  first 
dish  ’  was  served.  A  servant  walked  round  the  room  carry¬ 
ing  a  large  bottle  of  arrack  in  one  hand  and  wine  in  the  other. 
The  khan  took  half  a  tumbler  of  the  fiery  spirit,  and  drank  it 
oft  without  winking ;  most  of  the  guests  preferred  arrack. 
Another  servant  followed  with  a  plate,  in  which  was  laid 
about  half  of  a  sheet  of  Persian  bread,  thin,  tough,  and  flabby. 
Upon  the  bread  was  a  heap  of  kababs — pieces  of  meat  about 
an  inch  square,  well  cooked,  and  covered  with  the  remain¬ 
der  ‘of  the  bread,  which  was  turned  over  them.  Each  guest 
raised  the  bread  flap,  took  a  kabab  with  his  fingers,  added  a 
piece  of  the  flap,  or  wiped  his  fingers  upon  it,  as  he  pleased. 
For  three  hours  this  was  the  form  of  the  entertainment;  the 
talk  and  the  music  went  on  while  the  kababs,  the  arrack,  and 
the  wine  circulated.  About  ten  o’clock  the  real  dinner  be¬ 
gan.  A  table  was  brought  in,  a  cloth  spread  ;  bowls  of  sher¬ 
bet,  piles  of  boiled  rice,  other  piles  of  pillau,  a  mixture  of  rice 


270  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

and  stewed  fowls,  were  introduced.  In  one  huge  dish  was 
placed  a  lamb  roasted  whole,  presenting  a  horribly  sacrificial 
appearance.  I  watched  the  khan,  curious  to  see  if  it  was 
possible  that  appetite  for  boiled  rice  remained  after  he  had 
drunk  about  a  pint  of  raw  alcohol,  intermixed  with  kababs. 
His  attendants — the  servants  of  every  guest  share  in  the  work 
on  these  occasions  —  drew  a  couch  toward  the  table,  upon 
which  the  khan  lifted  himself ;  then  he  pointed  with  a  loud 
laugh  to  the  soup-tureen,  from  which  the  British  agent,  an 
Armenian,  was  helping  himself.  That’s  what  makes  you 
such  a  little  fellow,”  he  said.  “  I  like  pillau.”  He  bared  his 
huge  arm  to  the  elbow  to  vindicate  his  preference,  and  for 
the  better  handling  of  the  rice.  Plunging  his  fingers  into  a 
pile,  he  kneaded  a  huge  bolus  of  the  greasy  rice  at  a  single 
pinch,  and  pressed  it  into  his  mouth ;  another  and  another 
followed,  until  he  had  made  a  great  hole  in  the  heap  of  pillau. 
For  nearly  an  hour  there  was  little  talk,  much  eating ‘and 
drinking ;  then  some  coffee ;  and  after  that  the  guests  were 
hoisted  on  to  the  high  saddles  of  their  steady,  patient  hiules, 
and  jogged  homeward  through  the  narrow  streets,  lighted 
only  by  the  lanterns  of  their  attendants. 


ZIL-I-SIJLTAN  AND  THE  BEITISH  SCHOOL.  , 


271 


CHAPTER  XVIII.  ‘ 

Ispahan. — Zil-i-Sultan  and  the  British  School. — Church  Missionary  Society. 
— The  “Crown  of  Islam.” — A  Bide  through  Ispahan. — The  Meidan. — 
Eunaway  Horses  in  Bazaar. — “Embassador  Lilies.” — New-year’s-eve. — 
Severe  Cold. — Sufferings  of  the  Poor. — A  Supper  in  Ispahan. — Kerbela 
and  Nedjif. — Houssein  and  Ali. — Imam  Juma’s  Court. — Confiscation  of 
Christians’  Property.— Bab  and  Babis. — Execution  of  Bab. — ^Attempted 
Assassination  of  the  Shah. — Punishment  of  the  Conspirators. — Eevenge 
of  the  Koran. — Bab  and  Behar. — The  Followers  of  Behar. 

As  soon  as  I  was  able  to  leave  my  bed,  I  desired  the  Brit¬ 
ish  agent  to  ask  the  Zil-i-Sultan  for  an  audience,  that  I  might 
-  offer  some  remarks  upon  the  closing  of  the  British  school. 
The  prince  appeared  glad  to  see  me,  and  at  once  cleared  his 
room,  that  we  might  talk  more  freely.  I  suggested  that  pos¬ 
sibly  he  was  not  aware  of  the  character  of  the  school,  which 
I  explained  was  not,  as  many  Persians  supposed,  maintained 
by  the  missionary,  but  by  a  great  society  (the  Church  Mis¬ 
sionary  Society),  to  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  English 
men  and  women,  including  the  queen,  subscribed.  The  En¬ 
glish  people  would  not,  I  said,  contend  that  they  had  a  right 
to  establish  schools  in  Persia;  I  could  not  question  the  au¬ 
thority  of  his  royal  highness  to  close  the  school ;  but  I  vent¬ 
ured  to  add  that  this  arbitrary  proceeding  would  be  regard¬ 
ed  by  England  as  a  veiy  unkindly  act,  and  would  do  much, 
when  it  became  generally  known,  to  destroy  all  the  good  feel¬ 
ing  which  the  liberal  professions  of  the  Shah  during  his  stay 
in  England  had  caused  to  prevail  toward  the  Government  of 
Persia ;  that  the  English  people  were  not  ambitious  of  chang¬ 
ing  the  established  religion  of  Persia  was,  I  urged,  evident 


272 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


from  the  fact  that  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  with  an  in¬ 
come  of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  pounds 
a  year,  expended  no  more  than  a  few  hundreds  in  the  Persian 
Empire,  and  confined  all  that  expenditure  to  Ispahan. 

I  did  not  refrain  from  adding  that  his  highness’s  order  ap¬ 
peared  the  more  unjust  because  the  Armenian  Orthodox  and 
the  Roman  Catholic  schools  in  Djulfa  were  not  molested; 
and  because  in  Teheran  and  in  Tabriz  the  schools  of  Ameri¬ 
can  missionaries  had  been  long  established,  and  were  prosper¬ 
ing  under  the  immediate  government  of  the  Shah  and  of  the 
crown-prince. 

The  Zil-i-Sultan  appeared  somewhat  moved  by  these  argu¬ 
ments,  and  said  he  was  very  anxious  to  explain  the  circum¬ 
stances  under  which  he  had  felt  bound  to  issue  the  order  for 
closing  Mr.  Bruce’s  school.  “  The  Shah,  my  father,  and  I,” 
he  said,  “are  friends  of  education.  You  must  do  us  the  jus¬ 
tice  to  admit  that.  I  am  no  fanatic.  I  mean  to  ask  my  father 
to  allo^v  my  children  to  be  educated  in  Europe.  That  will 
show^  you  I  am  not  a  bigot.  But  Ispahan  is  Ispahan.  They 
call  it  the  ‘  Crown  of  Islam,’  and  the  moollahs  are  very  strong 
here.  I  closed  the  school  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  town. 
The  Armenian  bishop  came  to  me;  the  Roman  Catholic  priest 
came  to  me ;  the  moollahs  complained ;  they  came  here  and 
cried  ;  tears  ran  down  their  faces.  What  could  I  do  ?  They 
said  that  Mr.  Bruce  had  converted  a  moollah ;  that  he  had 
spoken  in  the  streets  of  the  Virgin  Mary  as  being  not  differ¬ 
ent  from  Other  women ;  they  stirred  up  the  people,  and  I  was 
obliged  to  close  the  school.  But,  I  give  you  my  word,  it 
shall  be  opened  again  —  at  the  proper  time.  I  wdll  see  Mr. 
Bruce.  He  thinks  I  am  not  a  friend  to  him,  but  I  am  his 
friend.  I  will  show  him  how  to  act  so  as  not  to  excite  the 
moollahs.” 

After  taking  leave  of  the  prince,  I  rode  for  some  hours 
about  the  streets  and  bazaars  of  Ispahan.  There  are  literally 


A  EIDE  THROUGH  ISPAHAN. 


273 


miles  of  ruins  in  and  about  the  city,  and  of  ruins  that  are 
never  picturesque  nor  in  any  way  attractive.  Along  the  side 
of  the  river  there  is  nothing  but  ruin.  Thick  walls  of  mud- 
bricks  which  have  not  lost  their  original  color  by  exposure  to 
the  sun  (the  only  baking  that  Persian  bricks  ever  get),  are 
broken  into  heaps  of  dusty  ruin,  and  have  remained  untouch¬ 
ed,  the  home  of  birds  and  lizards.  Some  of  the  bazaars  are 
well  built,  with  lofty,  vaulted  roofs  of  stone,  but  of  these  not 
a  few  are  deserted.  I  rode  through  these  sombre,  cold,  de¬ 
serted  places,  the  way  incumbered  by  stones  fallen  from  the 
overhanging  roof,  in  momentary  danger  of  another  fall.  De¬ 
cay,  dilapidation,  and  ruin  are  never  out  of  sight.  In  the 
largest  open  place,  the  meidan,  which  is  about  five  hundred 
yards  in  length  and  two  hundred  broad,  there  is  the  best 
view  of  the  life  of  the  city.  Caravans  of  camels  or  mules, 
carrying  travelers,  pilgrims,  merchandise,  or  supplies  of  fuel 
and  vegetables,  are  always  there.  At  one  end  is  the  Mesjid- 
i-Juma,  the  great  mosque  of  Ispahan,  the  dome  and  minarets 
adorned  with  colored  bricks  and  tiles.  In  the  centre  of  the 
meidan  is  a  small,  circular  mound,  built  of  brick,  about  as 
big  as  half  a  dozen  wagon- wheels  piled  together;  and  where 
the  axle  would  be  is  reared  a  ragged  pole.  This  is  the  exe¬ 
cution  ground,  and  the  pole  at  times  bears  the  head  of  a 
criminal. 

Some  of  the  bazaars  which  we  entered  from  the  meidan  are 
full  of  life  and  interest,  crowded  the  whole  day  long.  It  is 
perhaps  as  difficult  to  ride  as  to  walk  through  the  bazaars. 
A  passing  donkey  with  a  load  of  wood  is  a  dangerous  neigh¬ 
bor  for  the  knee  on  horseback,  and  on  foot  the  jagged  sticks 
may  strike  one  in  some  tender  and  vital  place.  And,  then,  a 
horse  may  be  frightened,  and  run  into  a  hundred  dangers  of 
this  sort.  On  one  occasion,  I  dismounted  in  a  bazaar  of  Is¬ 
pahan  to  buy  a  fur  coat;  and  while  I  was  trying  it  on,  with 
the  assistance  of  a  crowd  of  idlers,  attracted  by  the  sight  of  a 

1 2'^‘ 


274 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  GARAY  AN. 


foreigner,  my  horse  broke  away  from  my  servant,  and,  with  a 
loud  neigh,  flung  up  his  heels,  rushed  at  the  servant’s  horse, 
threw  himself  upon  it,  bit  it  in  the  neck  till  it  screamed  with 
pain,  and,  breaking  loose,  started  away  down  the  narrow  ba¬ 
zaar,  my  horse  in  furious  pursuit.  I  was  in  great  fear  as  to 
the  result.  Such  a  rout  I  never  saw.  Steady-going  camels 
roared  and  groaned  with  fright;  purchasers  bounded  on  to 
the  stalls  for  safety;  several  people  were  knocked  down. 
Fortunately,  no  damage  was  done,  and  nobody  much  hurt. 
The  runaways  were  caught  before  they  got  outside  the  ba¬ 
zaars,  but  they  would  not  be  held,  and  it  was  only  by  re¬ 
mounting  that  we  could  control  them. 

Ispahan  would  look  its  best  in  April  or  May,  when  the  dark 
violet  lilies — called  ^^eelchee  soosun^'*  ov  ‘‘embassador  lilies,” 
because  they  are  the  first  to  blossom — appear,  and  when  the 
mud  color  of  the  town  is  relieved  by  the  tender  green  of  the 
young  leaves  of  the  plane-trees.  Then,  as  at  all  times,  the 
charm  is  not  in  the  buildings  of  the  city,  but  in  its  exquisite 
situation,  with  immensely  expanded  views  of  plain  begirt 
with  mountains.  The  view  of  Ispahan  from  the  Djulfa  side 
of  the  river  is  not  easily  effaced  from  the  memory.  FTo  doubt 
the  great  name  of  the  city  has  something  to  do  with  the  im¬ 
pression  which  the  prospect  plants  upon  the  mind.  But  the 
real  glory  of  the  scene  is  the  ever-varying  color  of  the  many¬ 
shaped  mountains,  and  the  indescribable,  yet  not  less  real, 
sense  of  freedom  which  is  imparted  by  the  aspect  of  the 
plain. 

It  is  difficult  to  enter  any  Mohammedan  city  without  tread¬ 
ing  on  the  graves  of  departed  citizens.  Main  roads  in  the 
East  often  cross  burial-grounds.  Indeed,  no  place  of  sepul¬ 
ture  is  more  desired  than  that  in  which  there  are  most  trav¬ 
elers.  Fences  there  are  none,  and  the  tombs  afford  the  only 
sign  of  burial.  As  with  us,  the  grave  is  sometimes  marked 
with  a  horizontal  stone,  and  sometimes  with  a  perjoendicular 


new-year’s-eve. 


275 


slab.  A  translation  of  an  epitaph  not  uncommon  in  the 
grave-yards  about  Ispahan  runs  thus : 

“  The  Lord  of  earth  and  sky  is  onr  helper. 

The  eyes  of  all  are  fixed  on  the  Prophet. 

We  need  not  fear  the  light  of  the  searching  sun  of  the  resurrection, 

While  the  protection  of  Murteza  Ali  surrounds  and  covers  us.” 

On  the  last  day  of  1875  we  rode  out  of  Ojulfa  to  the  great 
cemeteries  on  the  edge  of  the  plain.  An  icy  wind  blew  over 
the  frozen  snow,  in  which  most  of  the  grave  -  stones  were 
buried ;  only  on  the  slopes  which  lay  exposed  to  the  southern 
sun  could  the  brown  earth  be  seen.  One  or  two  peasants, 
miserably  clad  in  cotton,  covered  with  a  ragged  sheep-skin, 
were  trying  to  get  a  handful  of  fuel  by  uprooting  the  camel- 
thorns  from  the  desert.  In  the  far  distance  some  black  dots 
upon  the  snow  indicated  a  caravan  of  mules  approaching  the 
city.  The  sun  was  dimmed  with  clouds,  and  where  its  rays 
'did  not  shine  there  all  remained  hard  bound  with  frost. 

Anywhere  in  the  world,  for  those  who  have  money  in  a  city 
full  of  people,  cold  is  more  endurable  than  heat.  One  is  not 
prostrated  by  cold  as  by  heat,  and  one  recovers  more  quickly 
from  its  effects.  Frost-bite  is  better  than  sun-stroke,  and  to 
be  chilled  to  the  bone  less  painful  than  fever.  For  my  part,  I 
would  rather  endure  an  attack  by  robbers  than  be  perpetual¬ 
ly  the  prey  of  vermin  ;  but  in  the  extreme  cold  of  the  Persian 
winter  there  is  less  danger  of  either  pest.  Both  hibernate  in 
the  season  of  frost  and  snow.  And  do  not  the  warmth  and 
the  pleasant  blaze  of  a  wood  fire  make  amends  for  the  cold? 
while  for  the  heat  which  has  fevered  one’s  brain  into  sleepless 
misery  there  is  sometimes  no  relief. 

But  as  we  turn  homeward  from  our  ride  on  New-year’s- 
eve,  and  pass  through  the  walled,  and  narrow,  and  deadly  cold 
streets,  the  deep,.mud  frozen  into  hard  rocks,  over  which  our 
horses  roll  and  stumble,  we  are  forced  to  remember  how  little 


270 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


the  poor  of  Persia  are  armed  against  cold  more  intense  than 
is  ever  felt  in  London.  In  Persia  the  poor  have  no  firing, 
few  clothes,  and  little  food.  Of  a  group  comprising  half  a 
dozen  huddled  round  a  handful  of  live  ashes  in  an  earthen¬ 
ware  dish,  not  one  had  any  covering  on  the  legs  between  the 
ankle  and  the  knee.  Among  the  poorest  of  Persia,  frost-bite 
is  not  uncommon.  They  walk  barefooted,,  or  in  miserable 
shoes,  in  the  snow  j  then  ride,  perhaps  for  hours,  their  feet 
covered  with  half-melted  snow:  upon  these  the  frost  fixes 
with  fatal  grip,  and  the  poor  wretches,  ignorantly  seeking  re¬ 
lief  from  their  tortures  at  the  first  fire  they  approach,  lose 
sometimes  their  toes  and  sometimes  their  feet. 

Happy  are  those  who  are  not  forced  to  endure  extremes 
of  climate :  theirs  is  the  most  pitiable  condition  who  sustain 
both  severe  heat  and  extreme  cold,  as  do  the  Persians.  ^^Tres 
meses  inmerno ;  nueve  meses  infierno'^'^  (“Three  months  win¬ 
ter  and  nine  months  hell”)  is  the  saying  of  Spaniards  concern¬ 
ing  the  climate  of  Madrid.  But  the  poor  of  Persia  suffer  in 
a  magnified  degree  the  miseries  of  poverty  in  Madrid. 

For  me  there  was  organized  a  supper,  to  which  every  per¬ 
son  in  Ispahan  who  could  speak  even  a  few  words  of  any 
European  language  was  invited  ;  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
priest  had  lent  a  bell,  which,  being  suspended  upon  a  tem¬ 
porary  stand  of  poles,  was  to  be  made  to  resound  the  witch¬ 
ing  hour  of  midnight  by  the  servants  of  our  entertainer.  In 
the  motley  company  assembled  in  his  rooms,  Armenian  was 
perhaps  the  predominating  element,  and  the  Armenians  are 
not  a  jovial  people.  The  entertainment  was  a  failure,  by  rea¬ 
son  of  the  cold.  Only  one  room  had  a  fire-place,  and  in  that 
a  few  damp  logs  fizzled,  but  refused  to  burn  continuously,  and 
warmth  could  not  be  obtained  by  drinking  cold  thin  wine  of 
Shiraz,  or  by  egg-cups  of  lukewarm  coffee.  Hot  punch  would 
have  relieved  the  iciness  of  the  supper,  but  warmth  was  con¬ 
spicuously  absent  from  the  feast.  And  there  was  a  median- 


KEEBELA  AND  NEDJIF. 


277 


ical  failure.  When  we  were  trying  to  make  merry  with  cold 
meats  and  colder  wine,  news  was  brought  that  the  bell  had 
fallen  from  its  perch,  and  we  were  therefore  left  to  form  our 
own  ideas  as  to  the  moment  of  midnight.  When  no  doubt 
remained  as  to  that  having  passed,  we  lighted  our  lanterns, 
and  began  the  work  of  the  new  year,  by  groping  our  way 
home  through  the  unlighted  streets  of  Djulfa- Ispahan,  dis¬ 
turbing  no  one  but  the  wolfish  dogs  which  prowled,  in  pit¬ 
eous  hunger,  upon  the  snow. 

While  we  were  in  Ispahan,  a  report  was  spread  that  Ker- 
bela,  where  Houssein  was  buried,  and  Kodjif,  where  rest  the 
remains  of  his  father  Ali,  were  to  be  ceded  to  the  Shah. 
This,  which  would  naturally  delight  the  hearts  of  all  true 
Shi’ahs,  was  reported  in  two  ways.  First  it  was  said  that 
the  Sultan  would  give  up  these  sacred  towns  to  Persia  as  the 
price  of  an  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  against  Russia; 
and,  again,  it  was  said  that  Kerbela  and  Red]  if  were  to  be 
purchased  by  the  Shah  from  the  Porte  for  a  million  of  to¬ 
mans.  One  day  I  showed  a  sketch  of  Kerbela  to  our  serv¬ 
ants  and  to  a  knot  of  by-standers,  telling  them  wdiat  it  repre¬ 
sented.  Immediately  the  picture  was  in  danger.  All  wished 
to  kiss  it,  to  press  it  to  their  foreheads,  and  cried  “Ah,  Hous¬ 
sein  !”  with  an  expression  of  deep  regret,  more  true  and  ten¬ 
der,  in  the  ardor  of  sincerity,  than  one  expects  to  find  uttered 
over  a  grave  which  has  been  closed  for  twelve  centuries. 

There  is  but  little  expression  of  dissent  in  Persia,  and  in 
Ispahan  orthodoxy  is  practically  enforced  by  the  court  of 
the  Imam  Juma.  Armenians  in  Djulfa  have  actually  been 
robbed  of  their  property  by  authority  of  this  court,  upon 
the  representation  of  a  renegade  member  of  their  family  who 
had  joined  the  community  of  Islam.  Mr,  Bruce  assured  us 
that,  after  he  had  purchased  a  piece  of  ground  from  an  Ar¬ 
menian,  he  was  cited  to  appear  in  the  Imam  Juma’s  court,  to 
answer  the  complaint  of  a  Mohammedan,  who  alleged  that 


278 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAIN^. 


the  property  did  not  belong  to  the  vender,  but  had  passed 
to  him,  a  member  of  the  family,  who  had  adopted  the  faith 
of  Islam.  The  English  missionary  declined  to  acknowledge 
the  authority  of  the  court.  But  this  defiance,  which  was  not 
dangerous  in  the  case  of  a  well-known  British  subject,  is 
quite  beyond  the  power  of  his  poorer  Christian  neighbors, 
who  are  naturally  fearful  of  the  courts  of  law,  which  are 
strictly  governed  by  the  language  of  the  Koran,  and  presided 
over  by  j)riests  as  fanatical  and  cruel  as  any  inquisitor  of  that 
European  period  w^hich  is  well  described  as  the  Dark  Ages. 

The  measure  of  injustice  and  oppression  which  these  courts 
of  the  Koran  inflict  upon  the  Christians  may  seem  mild  in 
comparison  with  the  treatment  by  which  they  supjiress  non¬ 
conformity  within  the  pale  of  their  own  community.  We 
have  seen  an  example  in  the  sentence  of  “  a  hundred  sticks,” 
which  the  incautious  expression  of  liberal  views  brought  upon 
the  friend  of  the  Zil-i-Sultan,  who  added  to  free  speech  the 
wickedness  of  wearing  trousers  of  European  cut.  There  is, 
however,  in  Ispahan  a  surviving  heresy,  the  most  notable  in 
Persia,  which,  when  proved  against  a  man,  is  almost  a  death- 
warrant. 

Early  in  the  present  century  a  boy  was  born  at  Shiraz,  the 
son  of  a  grocer,  whose  name  has  not  been  iireserved.  Ar¬ 
rived  at  manhood,  this  grocer’s  son  expounded  his  idea  of  a 
religion  even  more  indulgent  than  that  of  Mohammed.  He 
is  known  by  the  name  of  Bab  (the  gate),  and  his  followers 
are  called  Babis.  In  1850,  Bab  had  established  some  reputa¬ 
tion  as  a  prophet,  and  was  surrounded  by  followers  as  ready 
to  shed  their  blood  in  his  defense  as  any  who  formed  the 
body-guard  of  Mohainmed  in  those  early  days  at  Medina, 
when  he  had  gained  no  fame  in  battle,  and  had  not  conceived 
the  plan  of  the  Koran.  Bab  was  attacked  as  an  enemy  of 
God  and  man,  and  at  last  taken  prisoner  by  the  Persian  Gov¬ 
ernment,  and  sentenced  to  death.  He  was  to  be  shot.  Tied 


EEVENGE  OF  THE  KOEAIST. 


279 


to  a  stake  in  Tabriz,  he  confronted  the  firing-party,  and  await¬ 
ed  death.  The  report  of  the  muskets  was  heard,  and  Bab 
felt  himself  wounded,  but  at  liberty.  He  was  not  seriously 
hurt,  and  the  bullets  had  cut  the  cord  which  bound  him. 
Clouds  of  smoke  hung  about  the  spot  where  he  stood,  and 
probably  he  felt  a  gleam  of  hope  that  he  might  escape  when 
he  rushed  from  the  stake  into  a  neighboring  guard  -  house. 
He  had  a  great  reputation,  and  very  little  was  necessary  to 
make  soldiers  and  people  believe  that  his  life  had  been  spared 
by  a  genuine  miracle.  Half  the  population  of  Persia  would 
perhaps  have  become  Babis,  had  that  guard-house  contained 
the  entrance  to  a  safe  hiding-place.  But  there  was  nothing 
of  the  sort.  The  poor  wretch  was  only  a  man,  and  the  sol¬ 
diers  saw  he  had  no  supernatural  powers  whatever.  He  was 
dragged  again  to  the  firing-place  and  killed.  But  dissent  is 
not  to  be  suppressed  by  punishment,  and  of  course  Babisni 
did  not  die  with  him.  Two  years  afterward,  when  the  pres¬ 
ent  Shah  was  enjoying  his  favorite  sport,  and  was  somewhat 
in  advance  of  his  followers,  three  men  rushed  upon  his  maj¬ 
esty  and  wounded  him,  in  an  attempted  assassination.  The 
life  of  ISTazr- ed-deen  Shah,  Kajar,  was  saved  by  his  own 
quickness,  and  by  the  arrival  of  his  followers,  who  made  pris¬ 
oners  of  the  assassins.  They  declared  themselves  Babis,  and 
gloried  in  their  attempt  to  avenge  the  death  of  their  leader, 
and  to  propagate  their  doctrines,  by  the  murder  of  the  Shah. 
The  bafiied  criminals  were  put  to  death  with  the  cruelty 
which  the  offenses  of  this  sect  always  meet  with.  Lighted 
candles  were  inserted  in  slits  cut  in  their  living  bodies,  and, 
after  lingering  long  in  agony,  their  tortured  frames  were 
hewed  in  pieces  with  hatchets. 

In  most  countries  the  theory  of  punishment  is,  that  the 
State,  on  behalf  of  the  community,  must  take  vengeance  upon 
the  offender ;  but  in  Persia  it  is  otherwise.  There,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  Koran,  the  theory  and  ba- 


280 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sis  of  punishment  is  that  the  relations  of  the  victim  must 
take  revenge  upon  the  actual  or  would-be  murderers.  In 
conformity  with  this  idea,  the  Shah’s  chamberlain  executed, 
on  his  majesty’s  behalf,  and  with  his  own  hand,  one  of  the 
conspirators.  Yet  the  Babis  remain  the  terror  and  trouble 
of  the  Government  of  Ispahan,  where  the  sect  is  reputed  to 
number  more  followers  than  anywhere  else  in  Persia.  But 
many  of  them  have,  in  the  present  day,  transferred  their  alle¬ 
giance  from  Bab  to  Behar,  a  man  who  was  lately,  and  may 
be  at  present,  imprisoned  at  Acca,  in  Arabia,  by  the  Turkish 
Government.  Behar  represents  himself  as  God  the  Father  in 
human  form,  and  declares  that  Bab  occupies  the  same  posi¬ 
tion,  in  regard  to  himself,  that  John  the  Baptist  held  to  Jesus 
Christ.  We  were  assured  that  there  are  respectable  families 
in  Ispahan  who  worship  this  imprisoned  fanatic,  who  endan¬ 
ger  their  property  and  their  lives  by  a  secret  devotion,  which, 
if  known,  would  bring  them  to  destitution,  and  probably  to  a 
cruel  death. 


ADVANTAGE  OF  KUSSIA. 


281 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Getting  out  of  Persia.- — Northern  and  Southern  Eoads. — Advantage  of  Eiis- 
sia. — Eussian  Goods  in  Persia. — English  Interests  in  Persia. — Mr.  Mac¬ 
kenzie’s  Plan. — Navigation  of  the  Karun  Eiver. — From  Ispahan  to  Shus¬ 
ter. — A  Subsidy  required. — Price  of  Wheat. —  East  India  Company's 
Survey. — Letter  to  Lord  Derby. — Baron  Eeuter’s  Concession. — Traffic 
in  Persia. — Mules  and  Eailways. — Difficulties  of  Construction. — Inter¬ 
course  between  Towns.' — Estimates  of  Population. — Traveling  in  Persia. 
— Mountain  Scenery. — Plains  covered  with  Snow. — Persia  and  “The  Ara¬ 
bian  Nights.” — No  Old  Men. — The  Lady  and  the  House. — The  Greatest 
Power  in  Persia. 

I 

The  ways  and  means  of  getting  out  of  Persia  are  especial¬ 
ly  forced  upon  the  mind  of  the  traveler  from  Europe  when 
he  is  in  Ispahan,  the  central  city  of  the  empire.  If  he  is  fa¬ 
tigued,  or  not  in  good  health,  one  fact  will  weigh  upon  his 
mind — he  must  ride,  or  be  carried  in  a  takht-i-rawan,  for  five 
hundred  miles  before  he  can  be  clear  of  the  dominions  of  the 
Shah,  or  obtain  any  more  easy  conveyance. 

It  is  far  less  difficult  to  ride  northward  to  the  Caspian  Sea 
than  southward  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  And  as  it  is  with  trav¬ 
elers,  so  it  is  with  goods.  Xothing  in  the  way  of  merchandise 
can  arrive  in  Ispahan  except  on  the  backs  of  mules,  or  horses, 
or  camels.  The  consequence  is,  owing  to  the  easier  access 
from  the  north  and  to  the  proximity  of  Russia,  that  Russian 
imports  are  pressing  southward  to  the  exclusion  of  English 
manufactures  from  the  markets  of  Persia. 

The  entry  of  English  goods  to  Persia,  and  the  export  of 
corn,  cattle,  wool,  and  other  products  of  that  country,  have 
been  rendered  much  more  easy  by  the  construction  of  the 


282 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Suez  Canal ;  but  as  regards  the  market  for  our  manufactures, 
we  shall  be  beaten  back  to  the  coast  by  Russia,  unless  some 
better  road  be  opened  for  the  conveyance  of  goods  to  Ispahan. 
Russia  has  a  great  advantage  over  us,  in  this  respect,  from 
the  north,  and  the  bazaars  of  Teheran  are  chiefly  supplied 
with  Russian  manufactures.  The  proposal— which  was  noised 
as  being  the  first  large  work  to  be  undertaken  upon  the  con¬ 
cession  to  Baron  Reuter— to  construct  a  railway  from  Resht 
to  Teheran,  would,  if  carried  out,  have  facilitated  most  ob¬ 
viously  the  entry  of  Russian  goods,  and  have  enabled  Russia 
to  command  the  trade,  not  of  Teheran  only,  but  of  Ispahan, 
and  probably  of  Shiraz. 

Of  all  the  powers,  Russia  is  the  most  ungenerous  and  unen¬ 
lightened  in  her  tariffs.  She  forces  her  wretched  hardware 
and  inferior  cottons  upon  her  subjects,  and  her  near  neigh¬ 
bors  of  the  semi-barbarous  sort,  to  the  complete  exclusion  of 
the  superior  goods  which  England  could  furnish ;  the  north 
gate  of  Persia  is  absolutely  in  her  keeping ;  and  the  proposal 
to  carry  her  commerce  to  the  chief  towns  of  Persia  by  a  rail¬ 
way,  to  be  constructed  with  English  gold,  imiflied  either  great 
ignorance  of  the  nature  and  consequences  of  the  work,  or  an 
astounding  confidence  in  the  unselfish  disposition  of  British 
capitalists.  Moreover,  we  have  never  been  able,  in  passing 
over  the  ground,  to  see  what  security  could  be  obtained  for 
expenditure  in  this  direction.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Russia  would  be  grateful  to  any  foreign  capitalists  who  would 
make  a  railway  from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  Teheran  and  Ispa¬ 
han  ;  but  this  would  hardly  diminish  any  desire  she  may  have 
to  possess  the  rich  northern  provinces  of  Persia ;  and  it  is  un¬ 
deniable  that  she  may  take  them  at  any  moment  she  pleases 
to  put  forth  her  hand.  There  is  nothing  but  the  Persian 
army  to  withstand  her ;  and  the  railway,  besides  promoting 
her  commerce,  would  render  the  military  occupation  of  I^orth- 
crn  Persia  less  costlv,  and  much  more  secure. 


ME.  Mackenzie’s  plan. 


283 


For  English  interests  it  is  very  necessary  to  improve  the 
means  of  communication  in  the  south ;  and  the  best  scheme 
I  have  met  with,  is  that  which  was  pressed  in  January  last, 
though  without  any  success,  upon  the  Shah’s  Grovernment  by 
Mr.  George  Mackenzie,  a  British  merchant,  of  the  firm  of 
Gray,  Mackenzie,  &  Co.,  resident  at  Bagdad.  The  united  wa¬ 
ters  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  flow  past  the  Turkish 
town  of  Bussorah  into  the  Persian  Gulf.  This  confluence  of 
the  two  rivers  is  called  the  Shat-el-Arab.  At  right  angles  to 
this  great  stream,  and  nearly  opposite  the  town  of  Bussorah, 
the  Persian  river  Kanin  contributes  its  flow,  the  junction  be¬ 
ing  at  the  town  of  Mohammerah,  the  taking  of  which  was  the 
only  considerable  achievement  of  the  British  expedition  un¬ 
der  the  command  of  Sir  James  Gutram  in  1856.  At  Shuster, 
nearly  half-way  between  Mohammerah  and  Ispahan,  the  Ka- 
run  is  navigable  by  steamboats  drawing  four  feet  of  water ; 
and  Mr.  Mackenzie,  who  has  ’lately  been  over  the  whole  route, 
has  reported  that  the  passage  of  mules  from  Ispahan  to  Shus¬ 
ter  would  be  far  more  easy  than  upon  the  difficult  path  be¬ 
tween  Shiraz  and  Bushire.  The  path  by  which  English  man¬ 
ufactures  must  be  carried  on  mules,  camels,  or  donkeys  from 
Bushire  to  Ispahan  is  very  little  less  than  five  hundred  miles 
in  length ;  whereas  from  Shuster  to  the  central  city  of  Persia 
the  distance  would  be  not  more  than  two  hundred  and  seven¬ 
ty  miles. 

Mr.  Mackenzie,  probably  the  first  Englishman  who  has 
passed  over  this  little -known  region  of  Persia,  found  the 
Bakhtiari  tribes,  by  whom  it  is  inhabited,  better  than  their 
reputation,  which  is  that  of  marauding  gypsies.  He  states 
that  they  are  hospitable,  obliging,  and  free  from  caste  preju¬ 
dices.  Mr.  Mackenzie  says  of  the  tribes  between  Ispahan  and 
Shuster,  “  They  evinced  no  objection  to  eat  out  of  the  same 
dish  with  me,  smoking  the  kalian,  too,  at  all  times  after  me.” 
Ho  found  the  Bakhtiari  people  “ignorant  of  the  division  of 


284 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


time  or  of  distances.”  “  Generally,”  he  says,  they  know  of 
two  other  nations  only;  the  Farangi  [a  term  equivalent  to 
Gentiles,”  but  generally  employed  in  describing  the  English] 
and  the  Russ.  To  the  latter  they  appear  to  give  precedence, 
as  I  was  at  more  than  one  place  asked  whether  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  was  not  the  Shah-in-Shah.  They  are  a  happy  and 
contented  people,  entirely  under  the  control  of  one  chief,  the 
Eelkhanie,  whose  authority  alone  they  acknowledge.”  Mr. 
Mackenzie’s  proposal  was  that  the  Shah’s  Government  should 
concede  to  his  firm — which  is  in  close  relations  with  that  of 
Messrs.  Gray,  Dawes,  &  Co.,  of  London  — permission  to  put 
steam-vessels  on  the  Karun;  and  these  gentlemen  have  in¬ 
formed  Lord  Derby  that  if  the  British  Government  would 
give  them  a  subsidy  of  four  thousand  pounds  a  year,  they 
would  undertake  to  run  a  steamer  monthly  from  Shuster  to 
Mohammerah  and  back.  From  the  latter  town,  the  vessels 
of  the  British  India  Steam  Navigation  Company,  of  which 
the  firm  above  mentioned  are  agents,  run  to  Bushire  and 
Bombay,  and,  by  the  Suez  Canal,  to  London. 

I  have  no  means  of  judging  whether  the  subsidy  is  justly 
calculated ;  but  I  know  that  the  Russian  Government  gives  a 
large  subsidy,  nominally  for  carrying  the  mails,  to  the  line  of 
steamers  belonging  to  the  Caucasus  and  Mercury  Company 
a  purely  Russian  undertaking — which  call  at  all  the  Persian 
landing-places  on  the  Caspian ;  that  the  British  Government 
adopts  a  similar  policy  with  regard  to  the  British  India  Com¬ 
pany  ;  and  it  is  obvious  that  in  both  cases  this  is  done  with  a 
view  of  promoting  influence  and  trade  in  Persia.  But  En¬ 
glish  trade  is  being  beaten  out  of  Persia  for  want  of  a  better 
entry  than  by  the  terrible  road  from  Bushire  to  Shiraz,  and 
Persia  would  benefit  immensely  by  having  a  more  ready  out¬ 
let  for  her  surplus  produce.  In  villages  not  distant  from  the 
Karun,  a  quarter  of  wheat  may  be  bought  for  about  four 
shillings;  so  that  Persia  might  hope,  if  this  river  were  made 


LETTER  TO  LORD  DERBY. 


285 


available,  to  reduce  the  adverse  balance  of  trade,  which,  in  its 
constant  augmentation,  threatens  the  country  with  ruin.  I 
am  not  acquainted  with  the  precise  language  in  which  the  re¬ 
fusal  of  the  concession  was  conveyed;  but  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  negotiation  failed  because  some  Persians  in  high  offi¬ 
cial  position  wanted  to  be  paid,  and  largely  paid,  for  allowing 
Englishmen  to  confer  gratuitous  benefit  upon  their  country. 

In  1842,  when  Lieutenant  Selby  ascended  the  Karun  River 
by  direction  of  the  East  India  Company,  he  concluded  his  re¬ 
port  with  the  words,  I  feel  sure  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  these  rivers  will  be  as  well  known  and  traversed  as  the 
Indus  and  the  Ganges.”  As  to  the  j)resent  condition  of  Brit¬ 
ish  in  competition  with  Russian  trade,  Messrs.  Gray,  Dawes, 
&  Co.,  than  whom  probably  no  persons  are  more  competent 
to  form  a  trustworthy  opinion,  have  written  to  Lord  Derby 
as  follows : 

“Ispahan,  the  centre  of  the  Persian  trade,  may  fairly  be 
taken  to  be  the  common  ground  where  Russian  and  British 
commerce  meet ;  and  until  recently  the  expense  of  transport¬ 
ing  goods  to  and  produce  from  that  point,  by  the  northern 
and  southern  routes,  was  nearly  the  same.  Of  late  years, 
however,  the  Russian  Government  has  so  far  improved  the 
northern  facilities,  that,  by  degrees,  various  articles  of  com¬ 
merce  (for  instance,  copper,  iron,  refined  sugar,  manufactured 
hardware,  candles,  etc.)  have  been  closed  to  us,  and  their 
trade  is  extending  farther  south  ;  and,  in  some  instances,  we 
are  beaten  even  at  the  coast  ports.  The  facilities  provided 
are — frequent,  cheap,  and  direct  communication  to  the  Cas¬ 
pian  ;  abolition  of  the  transit  duties  through  the  Caucasus  on 
goods  via  Poti  and  Tiflis;  and  a  resolute  insisting  upon  a 
prompt  settlement  of  the  claims  which  their  traders  have 
against  the  Persian  authorities. 

“To  compensate  for  these  growing  disadvantages,  we 
would  respectfully  urge  upon  your  lordship’s  consideration 


286 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


the  necessity  of  adopting  some  protective  measures  for  our 
trade  in  the  south ;  and  we  would  suggest,  first,  that  a  Brit¬ 
ish  consul  should  be  placed  at  Ispahan ;  and,  secondly,  that 
the  Shah’s  Government  should  concede  to  us  the  privilege  of 
placing  steamers  on  the  river  Karun,  to  run  from  Moham- 
merah  and  Shuster,  in  connection  with  the  steamers  from 
Bombay  and  London. 

‘‘About  fifteen  years  ago,  in  the  interests  of  trade,  the 
Government  subsidized  river  steamers  to  ply  between  Bus- 
sorah  and  Bagdad.  This  has  resulted  in  a  very  large  and 
still  increasing  trade :  the  subsidy,  we  believe,  was  four  thou¬ 
sand  pounds  per  annum.  For  the  same  subsidy,  we  would 
be  prepared  to  place  a  steamer  on  the  Karun,  and  maintain  a 
monthly  service  between  Shuster  and  Mohammerah,  connect- 
in<i:  at  Mohammerah  with  the  mail  steamers  from  Bombay, 
Kurrachee,  and  London.” 

Baron  Reuter  has  not  yet  abandoned  Persia,  and  is  still 
engaged,  I  believej  in  projecting  railways,  having  turned  his 
attention  from  north  to  south.  If  it  were  possible  to  obtain 
money  for  the  construction  of  a  railway  in"  Persia,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  British  interests  would  benefit  most  by  a 
line  from  Yezd,  through  Ispahan,  to  Shuster,  to  run  in  con¬ 
nection  with  steamboats  on  the  Karun.  But  I  can  not  be¬ 
lieve  that  a  railway  would  be  profitable  in  any  part  of  Per¬ 
sia.  The  passengers  would  be  but  very  few,  and  it  would 
be  extremely  difficult  to  take  the  goods  traffic  from  the  backs 
of  mules  at  profitable  rates.  We  have  sometimes  ridden  for 
eight  hours  between  Teheran  and  Ispahan  without  meeting 
a  traveler  of  whom  it  might  reasonably  be  supposed  that  he 
would  have  paid  to  go  by  rail.  For  the  ten  or  twelve  mules 
and  horses  we  required,  we  paid  little  more  than  the  value  of 
a  shilling  a  day  for  each — a  sum  which  included  the  attend¬ 
ance  of  muleteers  as  well  as  the  feeding  and  stabling  of  the 
animals.  In  his  report  to  Baron  Reuter  upon  improved  com- 


TRAFFIC  IN  PERSIA. 


287 


munications  in  Persia,  Captain  St.  John,  R.E.,  made  the  fol¬ 
lowing  statement  of  the  cost  per  ton  per  mile : 


Miles  a  day. 

Maximum. 

Minimum. 

Average. 

By  mules,  average  speed . . . 

22 

15d 

3d. 

3d. 

By  camels  or  asses,  average  speed . . 

12 

9  of. 

2d. 

id. 

These  are  low  rates,  and  the  muleteers’  trade  in  Persia  is 
one  that  would  die  hard.  The  charvodars,  and  all  of  their 
men,  are  accustomed  to  enormous  fatigues,  and  the  class  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  honest  and  worthy  in  Persia.  In 
the  towns,  many  of  the  wealthiest  people  have  invested  mon¬ 
ey  in  mules ;  and  these,  too,  would  look  with  unfriendly  eyes 
upon  the  new  mode  of  traveling. 

But  such  interested  objections,  of  course,  wear  out.  The 
real  question  is,  whether  the  concession  of  power  to  construct 
and  work  a  railway  would  be  respected,  and  whether  the 
traffic  is,  or  is  likely  to  become,  sufficient  to  render  the  un¬ 
dertaking  profitable.  From  all  that  we  have  seen  during  five 
months  in  Persia,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  no  sufficient 
security  could  be  given  to  justify  confidence  that  the  con¬ 
cession  would  be  respected,  especially  if  the  railway  "were 
successful ;  and  that  there  is  nowhere  in  Persia — one  of  the 
most  sparsel}^  inhabited  countries  of  the  world  —  sufficient 
traffic  to  render  a  railway  profitable.  As  to  the  cost  of  con¬ 
struction,  although  in  the  plains  the  work  would  be  very  in¬ 
expensive,  yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  no  two  towns  can 
be  connected  without  overcoming  great  engineering  difficul¬ 
ties.  Between  the  chief  towns  of  Persia  there  are  mountains 
which  must  be  crossed  at  a  height  of  six  thousand  or  eight 
thousand  feet,  and  which  are,  without  exception,  rocky,  some 
of  them  composed  of  the  hardest  stone.  These,  how'ever,  are 
only  such  obstacles  as  English  engineers  delight  in  surmount¬ 
ing.  The  real  difficulty  is  in  the  want  of  security,  and  in  the 
unsatisfying  prospect  of  remunerative  returns. 


288  THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 

There  is  very  little  intercourse  between  the  chief  towns  of 
Persia.  Those  doorless  hovels  of  mud-brick,  covered  with  a 
rude  cement  of  mud  and  straw,  which  are  placed  at  distances 
of  twenty  to  thirty  miles  apart  on  the  w^ay  from  Resht, 
through  Teheran  and  Ispahan  to  Shiraz,  have  but  the  one 
room,  the  bala-khanah,  elevated  above  the  noisome  yard  in 
which  horses  and  mules  are  inclosed  for  the  night.  In  a  ride 
of  about  four -and -twenty  days  to  Ispahan,  we  had  never 
found,  on  arriving  at  a  station,  this  one  room  already  occu¬ 
pied,  which  is  perhaps  the  strongest  evidence  that  could  be 
afforded  of  tlie  scarcity  of  native  or  foreign  travelers.  Per¬ 
chance  some  bold  speculator  will  in  the  next  budget  of  bub¬ 
bles  be  prepared  to  float  ”  a  company  for  working  the  Tehe¬ 
ran  or  Ispahan  Steam  Tram-ways,  Limited,  regardless  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  more  than  doubtful  if  a  carriage  of  any  sort 
could  make  its  w^ay  through  any  town  in  Persia.  It  is  cer¬ 
tainly  a  fact  that  no  carriage  can  be  obtained  for  hire  in 
either  of  those  places. 

As  to  the  population  of  the  towns  and  of  the  country  gen¬ 
erally,  there  exist  no  trustworthy  figures.  The  number  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Ispahan  is  stated  to  be  more  than  ninety 
thousand ;  but  after  passing  five  weeks  in  the  city,  and  be¬ 
coming  well  acquainted  with  nearly  every  part  of  it,  I  am  not 
inclined  to  believe  that  more  than  half  that  number  of  ,  people 
can  ever  at  any  one  time  be  found  in  the  Crown  of  Islam.” 
The  Persians  do  not  seem  to  retain  their  senses,  or  their  cal¬ 
culating  faculties,  when  the  numbers  rise  over  one  thousand. 
I  have  said  that  the  Zil-i-Sultan  told  me  that  the  Shah  had 
five  Persian  crores  of  soldiers  (two  million  five  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  men)  ;  but  after  seeing  much  more  of  his  fathqr’s  domin¬ 
ions  than  he  has  himself  beheld,  it  would  not  surprise  me  to 
learn  that  the  whole  number  of  men,  women,  children,  and 
slaves  in  Persia  does  not  exceed  his  royal  highness’s  estimate 
of  the  Persian  army.  We  have  never  traveled  in  a  country 


TKAVELING  IJST  PEKSIA. 


289 


so  thinly  populatGclj  and  in  this  respect  the  contrast  with  In¬ 
dia  is  very  striking.  Itven  on  the  most  frequented  track 
in  PeisiUj  the  mule-path  from  Teheran  to  IspahaOj  we  have 
ridden  eight-and-tweuty  miles  in  daylight  without  seeing  a 
human  habitation,  or,  except  the  foot-marks  upon  the  road,  a 
trace  of  man. 

But  the  charm  of  traveling  in  Persia  is  utterly  lost  when 
one  weighs  all  that  is  met  with  in  the  scale  of  progress.  In 
Persia,  passing  from  the  swift  and,  on  the  whole,  steady  ca¬ 
reer  of  Western  Europe  in  the  ways  of  civilization,  there  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  not  only  an  absence  of  progress,  but  rather  retro¬ 
gression.  That  which  is  truly  interesting  in  Persia  is  the  ex¬ 
tended  scenery,  and  the  outdoor  life — for  no  Euro23ean  sees 
much  of  the  indoor  existence — of  the  j)eo|)le.  Persia  is,  pQv 
cxccllciicCj  the  land  of  magnificent  distances.  In  summer  the 
mountains,  always  in  sight,  and  in  many  places  strongly  color¬ 
ed  with  the  metallic  ores  which  they  contain,  glow  with  won¬ 
drous  beauty  in  the  rose-light  of  the  morning  sun,  and  hard¬ 
en  into  masses  of  deep  purple  and  black  when  the  clear  and 
pleasant  starlight  is  substituted  for  the  glare  of  the  blazing 
sun  of  I  eisia.  In  another  season,  when  looking  from  the 
snow-covered  mountains,  we  have  seen  the  plains  resembling 
an  arctic  sea,  the  apparently  perfect  level  covered  with  a  daz¬ 
zling  expanse  of  untrodden  snow;  and, again,  when  the  white 
hills  loomed  through  the  blinding  storm  like  icebergs  of 
polar  regions. 

Wherever  the  people  are  seen,  their  presence  adds  to  the 
charm  of  the  landscape.  The  men  are  handsome  and  pictur¬ 
esque,  in  their  costumes  of  blue  or  white  cotton,  with  here 
and  there  one  in  red  or  yellow.  In  the  towns  the  traveler 
recognizes  in  the  people  the  characters  of  the  tales  in  ‘‘The 
Arabian  Nights.”  There  is  the  handsome,  stalwart  porter, 
the  hamal,  with  panting  breast  exposed  and  darkly  sunburn¬ 
ed  skin,  scratching  his  shaved  head,  ready  for  any  new  sum- 

13 


290 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


mons,  including  that  of  the  mysterious  lady,  the  mistress  of 
the  equally  mysterious  house,  wherein  he  may  be  murdered 
or  enriched,  killed  and  buried  like  a  dog,  or  clad  in  splendid 
robes,  and  served  by  lovely  maidens  bearing  dishes  of  gold 
and  silver,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  genii. 
There,  in  the  streets  or  bazaars  of  Ispahan,  is  the  merchant 
from  Bagdad,  'wearing  the  respectable  marks  of  a  pilgrim, 
and  saluted,  in  virtue  of  his  journey  to  Mecca,  by  all  men  as 
Hadji.”  His  green  or  white  turban  is  spotless  and  ample; 
a  cloak  of  fine  cloth,  gold-braided,  hangs  from  his  shoulders, 
and  his  tunic  of  purple  or  green  is  bound  with  a  costly  sash, 
in  which  probably  the  case  containing  his  materials  for  writ¬ 
ing  is  thrust  like  a  dagger.  Everywhere  is  seen  the  priest  or 
moollah,  riding,  with  nothing  of  meekness  in  his  face,  a  white 
donkey,  his  dress  proclaiming  him  to  be  a  member  of  the 
caste  which  is  strongest  in  Persia.  There  are  no  old  men ; 
for  those  whose  beards  are  naturally  white  with  age  have 
been  transformed  into  unnatural  youth  by  dying  the  hair 
briojht  red  with  khenna.  The  hands  and  feet  of  such  are 
often  colored  with  the  same  preparation,  and  they  sit  smoking 
a  kalian,  or  reading  the  Koran,  upon  the  front  planks  of  their 
stall  in  the  cool  bazaar,  without  any  more  apparent  interest 
in  their  business  than  if  it  were  a  mere  cloak  for  the  super¬ 
natural  concerns  of  their  active  life  in  such  another  sphere  as 
that  in  which  moved  the  genii  of  those  wonderful  tales. 

Even  without  aid  from  the  genii,  there  are  always  present 
in  Persia  two  mysteries,  which  no  doubt  will  serve  to  trans¬ 
mit,  as  long  as  they  exist,  the  ideas  of  “  The  Arabian  Kights.” 
These  are  the  veiled  lady  and  the  walled-up  house,  into  which 
no  outside  eye  can  j)enetrate.  Ko  giaour  can  see  even  the 
r  eyes  of  a  Persian  woman  of  the  middle  and  superior  classes. 
She  moves  through  the  streets  and  bazaars  on  her  white 
donkey,  or  on  foot,  in  complete  disguise.  Even  her  husband 
would  not  recognize  her.  She  is  covered— as  I  described  the 


THE  GREATEST  POWER, 


291 


women  of  Kesht — from  head  to  foot  in  the  loose  chudder  of 
indigo,  or  black-dyed  cotton  or  silk.  Over  her  face  there  is  the 
long  white  veil  tied  across  the  chudder,  where  that  envelop 
covers  all  but  the  visage.  The  legs  are  hidden  in  loose  trou¬ 
sers  of  cotton  or  silk  of  the  same  color  as  the  chudder,  which 
are  not  worn  in  the  house.  In  all  her  outdoor  life  she  is  a 
moving  mystery.  She  may  be  young  or  old,  white  or  black, 
fair  or  ugly,  on  a  mission  of  sin,  or  upon  an  errand  of  charity ; 
no  one  knows  who  she  is,  as  she  shuffles  along  upon  shoes 
which  are  difficult  to  keep  upon  her.  feet,  as  the  upper  leather 
ends  far  before  the  heel.  She  raises,  at  some  mud -walled 
house,  an  iron  knocker  upon  a  door  like  that  of  a  fortification ; 
is  admitted ;  the  door  is  closed ;  and  what  goes  on  within 
that  house,  what  is  the  fate  of  the  women,  the  children,  and 
the  slaves,  no  one  outside  can  know.  There  is  no  window 
from  which  they  can  communicate  with  the  outer  world :  it  is 
a  despotism  within  a  despotism.  Each  one  of  these  walled 
houses  is  the  seat  of  a  despotic  sovereignty,  established  and 
confirmed  by  the  greatest  power  in  Persia— that  of  the  Ko¬ 
ran. 


292 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Leaving  Ispahan. — “The  Farewell”  Hill. — Opium  Manufacture. — The  Tel¬ 
egraph  Superintendent. — Punishing  a  Servant. — Khadji  Josef’s  Tea-party. 
— Marg. — Kum-i-Shah. — The  Baggage  lost. — Neither  Ispahan  nor  Shiraz. 
— Ahminabad. — English  Doctor  robbed. — Doubt  and  Danger. — Yezdik- 
hast. — A  Vaulted  Chamber. — A  Black  Vault. — Telegram  from  Shiraz. — 
The  Abadeh  Istikbal. — A  Traveling  Pipe. — Display  of  Horsemanship. — 
Abadeh. — ^The  Governor’s  Present. — Bread  from  Teheran. — Letter  from 
Abadeh. — An  Ill -looking  Escort. — Khanikora. — Miserable  Lodging. — 
Soldiers  refuse  to  March. — Up  the  Mountains. — Houssein  Khan. — Deh- 
bid. — Shooting  Foxes. — Khanikergan. — Meshed  -  i  -Murghaub. — Robbers 
about. — Persian  Justice. — Tofanghees. 

Overlooking  the  rich  and  extensive  “Vega,”  or  Plain  of 
Granada,  there  is  a  hill  called  “El  Ultimo  Sospiro  del  Moro” 
(“The  Last  Sigh  of  the  Moor”).  It  is  supposed,  or  assumed, 
that  the  last  of  the  Mohammedans,  on  quitting  the  Alhambra 
and  its  glorious  neighborhood,  cast  from  this  hill  “  a  longing, 
lingering  look  behind”  at  the  Spanish  city,  the  name  of  which 
is  forever  associated  with  their  rule.  Xear  Ispahan,  on  the 
way  to  Shiraz,  there  is  a  hill  commanding  a  view  as  extensive, 
and  it  is  called  “  The  Farewell,”  or  “  The  Good-bye.” 

It  is  not  every  day  that  travelers  set  out  from  Ispahan  for 
Shiraz,  and  on  the  day  of  our  departure  all  Djulfa  was  astir. 
A  superintendent  of  the  Persian  Telegraph,  who  was  about  to 
make  his  annual  inspection  of  the  line,  which  ran  at  all  times 
in  the  neighborhood  of  our  path,  very  kindly  arranged  his 
journey  so  that  he  and  his  five  servants  might  join  our  cara¬ 
van.  We  had  engaged  mules  and  horses  on  the  recommenda¬ 
tion  of  an  Armenian  merchant,  one  Khadji  Josef,  in  whose 
service  our  mules  had  carried  opium  to  Bushire.  During  our 


293 


“the  good-bye.” 

stay,  there  were  always  men  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
opium  at  Khadji  Josef’s  house.  In  the  process,  the  opium* 
looked  exactly  like  Menier’s  chocolate.  Each  man  had  a  large 
tin  tray  before  him,  under  which  was  a  small  fire  of  charcoal. 
On  the  tray  was  a  quantity  of  crude  opium,  which  with  sticks 
the  workmen  always  kept  in  motion,  until,  after  much  stirring 
and  kneading,  it  was  poured  into  molds,  and  came  out  in  the 
shape  of  small  two-pound  cakes  ready  for  export  to  England. 
Most  of  the  Persian  opium,  it  is  said,  is  sent  to  this  country, 
to  be  used  here,  and  exported  from  England  to  other  coun¬ 
tries  for  medicinal  purposes,  for  which  it  is  especially  suitable, 
owing  to  the  large  quantity  of  morphia  it  contains.  Khadji 
J osef,  the  opium  merchant,  had  hospitably  resolved  that,  as 
the  thermometer  was  not  below  zero — it  was  very  little  above 
freezing-point  even  in  the  sun — he  would  give  an  alfresco  en¬ 
tertainment  at  “The  Good-bye.”  In  Persia,  where  it  is  com¬ 
mon  to  take  one’s  food  upon  the  desert,  the  notion  of  send¬ 
ing  out  into  the  wilderness  half  a  dozen  servants  to  make  tea, 
and  to  get  pipes  ready  and  in  good  smoking  order,  does  not 
appear  strange. 

Of  course  hours  passed  before  we  were  prepared  to  start. 
It  is  always  so ;  the  loading  of  each  mule  for  the  first  time  is 
a  tedious  work  of  art,  in  wliich  charvodars  show  great  skill. 
Weights,  as  nearly  as  may  be  equal,  must  be  suspended  on 
each  side  of  the  animal.  If  a  trunk  is  put  on  one  side,  and 
another  trunk  upon  the  other  side  is  not  so  heavy,  then  in  the 
same  slings  an  iron  bedstead,  or  something  else  to  make  up 
the  weight,  must  be  placed  upon  the  lighter  trunk ;  then  on 
the  top  of  some  bulky  goods  the  small  things  must  be  stacked, 
so  that  they  will  not  be  upset  by  the  motion  of  the  animal, 
nor  injured  by  collision.  While  all  this  was  beiim  arrano-ed 
the  cavalcade  grew  larger:  Khadji  Josef  and  his  pretty  wife, 
an  Armenian  girl,  with  no  other  enjoyment  but  that  of  riding 
high-spirited  horses  over  the  plains  of  Ispahan,  were  there ; 


294 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVA^f. 


the  British  agent;  our  good  friend  the  missionary,  and  every 
■  body  we  had  known  in  the  Persian  city,  all  mounted,  and  at¬ 
tended  by  mounted  servants.  The  Telegraph  superintendent 
had  ten  baggage -mules,  besides  the  five  servants,  who  were 
mounted  on  his  own  horses. 

Kazem  told  me  he  was  glad  this  superintendent  was  going 
with  us ;  he  would  be  a  good  protection  against  robbers  ;  and 
certainly  it  seemed,  from  his  armament,  that  robbers  we  must 
expect  to  meet.  Every  man  of  his  following  carried  a  car¬ 
bine  ;  one  or  two  had  sword  and  pistol ;  he  himself  had  a  re¬ 
volver  stuck  in  his  belt.  But  Kazem  had  another  reason ;  he 
said  that  one  of  the  superintendent’s  servants  was  his  ‘‘broth¬ 
er.”  I  understood  him  literally,  and  wondered  to  see  no  per¬ 
sonal  resemblance.  It  was  explained  that  there  was  no  rela¬ 
tionship  between  them  other  than  that  they  had  vowed  af¬ 
fection,  and  called  each  other  by  the  name  of  “  brother,”  after 
a  fashion  not  uncommon  in  Persia.  We  were  talking  of  this 
man  when  we  heard  a  cry  something  like  a  yell,  and  saw  the 
superintendent,  a  strong,  thick-set  man,  standing  in  his  stir¬ 
rups,  and  wdth  a  heavy  horsewhip  beating  the  very  person. 
Kazem’s  “brother”  had  come  up  to  join  the  caravan,  the 
worse  for  wine ;  and  his  master,  waving  the  terrible  thong  of 
his  whip  over  his  head,  was  executing  summary  punishment 
in  a  land  where  there  is  no  justice.  The  servant  was  a  good- 
looking  man,  wdth  dark  and  sombre  face,  over  which  his  high 
black  Persian  hat  was  perched  like  the  shako  of  a  guards¬ 
man.  He  wore  a  plum-colored  tunic  of  stuff  made  of  goat’s 
hair,  and  black  trousers.  His  feet  were  firmly  set  in  the 
huge,  sledge-like  stirrups,  and  though  his  face  was  pale  with 
fright,  he  took  his  beating  as  if  there  were  no  possibility  of 
resistance  or  escape.  The  poor  wretch  howled  like  a  dog; 
and  when  the  superintendent  refolded  the  thong  of  his  whip, 
the  man  seemed  to  be  perfectly  sober,  but  without  power  of 
steadying  himself  in  the  saddle.  Ho  paused  a  minute  as  if 


KHADJI  JOSEF’s  TEA-PAETY. 


295 


writhing  witli  pain ;  then  touched  his  horse,  which  sprung  at 
once  into  a  gallop.  The  man  rocked  fearfully  in  his  saddle 
as  he  rode  off;  but  he  was  soon  too  far  from  us  to  appear 
any  thing  but  a  vanishing  spot  upon  the  plain.  We  could 
see,  however,  that  he  knew  where  he  was  going,  and  that  he 
had  merely  preceded  upon  the  road  we  must  follow.  It 
turned  out  that  we  had  ascribed  this  sudden  gallop  to  the 
right  cause — to  his  desire  to  escape  from  the  sight  of  those 
who  had  witnessed  his  disgraceful  punishment. 

At  last  we  set  off — a  band  of  very  irregular  cavalry — my 
wife’s  takht-i-rawan  being  the  rallying-point  of  the  caravan. 
My  horse  had  those  qualities  most  advantageous  for  a  nine¬ 
teen  days’  ride — steadiness  and  endurance,  which,  however, 
are  not  showy.  Our  Persian  friends  were  prancing  over  the 
plain,  dashing  from  right  to  left  in  true  Oriental  fashion, 
while  we  plodded  on  up  the  gentle  ascent  from  Djulfa  to 
“  The  Good-bye.”  After  riding  about  four  miles,  we  reached 
a  small  plateau,  where  Khadji  Josef’s  servants  were  already 
expecting  us  with  boiling  samovars,  and  a  white  cloth  spread 
upon  the  desert,  on  which  were  laid  cakes  of  Persian  bread, 
manna,  sweetmeats  of  many  kinds,  boxes  of  sardines,  and  pots 
of  jam  imported  from  Europe.  There  were  bottles  of  wine, 
for  which  the  servants  had  dug  holes  in  the  desert,  and  arrack 
for  those  who  preferred  that  fiery  liquor.  A  heavy  spirit 
duty  would  not  be  an  evil  in  Persia.  The  best  quality  of  this 
pure  alcohol  may  be  bought  in  Teheran  or  Ispahan  at  fifteen 
shihees  (seven  and  a  half  pence)  a  bottle. 

We  all  dismounted,  and  enjoyed  not  only  the  tea,  but  also 
the  view  over  Djulfa  and  Ispahan,  divided  by  the  silver 
streak  of  the  Zayinderud.  It  was  a  perfectly  barren  place 
where  we  stood,  and  wo  had  passed  not  a  sign  of  cultivation 
in  the  four  miles  we  had  ridden.  The  air  was  not  very  cold, 
though  upon  the  plain  there  were  large  patches  of  snow,  and 
the  mountains  all  around  were  white  and  glistening.  Wo 


296 


THEOUGH  PEKSIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


were  sorry  to  part  company  from  all  who  had  ridden  out  with 
us  from  Ispahan  ;  but  more  than  all  with  Mr.  Bruce,  the  mis^ 
sionary.  Our  way  lay  toward  the  mountains,  which,  when 
they  obscured  the  sunlight,  looked  very  cold  and  desolate. 
The  sky  too,  which  had  been  clear,  was  gathering  in  clouds. 
But  we  were  soon  at  Marg,  and  hard  at  work  in  the  endeavor 
to  make  the  bala-khanah  somewhat  wind-proof  for  the  night, 
which  after  sunset  was  bitterly  cold. 

N'ext  day  about  noon,  having  collected  some  withered 
thorns,  which  are  the  only  vegetation  of  the  desert,  the  serv¬ 
ants  made  a  fire,  and  gave  us  a  hot  luncheon  of  stewed  meat 
and  rice,  by  the  side  of  a  stream,  the  water  of  which  jDro- 
dnced  in  the  food  something  of  that  chalybeate  flavor  which 
Sam  Weller  identified  with  the  taste  of  warm  flat-irons.” 

We  rested  at  the  chapar-khanali  of  Mayar  on  the  second 
night  after  leaving  Ispahan.  From  Mayar  to  Kum-i-Shah, 
the  third  day’s  inarch,  is  a  distance  of  about  twenty  miles. 
Kum-i-Shah  is  the  place  of  a  shrine — in  ruins,  of  course.  We 
had  just  come  in  sight  of  the  green  dome,  which  marked  the 
sacred  place,  when  two  men,  evidently  Europeans,  wearing 
the  pith  helmets  so  common  in  India,  appeared  on  the  scene. 
They  were  the  Telegraph  clerk  and  the  inspector  resident  at 
Kum-i-Shah,  both  Scotchmen ;  and,  after  kindly  attending  us 
to  our  wretched  lodging,  a  mud  hovel  in  a  town  of  still  infe¬ 
rior  mud  hovels,  they  appeared  again  in  the  morning  to  ride 
with  us  part  of  the  way  to  Mux-al-beg,  the  next  station.  The 
temperature  had  been  falling  every  day  since  we  left  Ispahan. 
The  cold  on  the  plain  from  Mayar  to  Mux-al-beg  was  the  most 
severe  we  had  experienced.  For  hours  we  crawled  over  the 
plain,  for  the  most  part  covered  with  snow,  at  the  rate  of  three 
miles  an  hour,  exposed  to  a  wind  so  keen  that  my  mustache 
was  painfully  weighted  with  pendants  of  ice,  which  were  re¬ 
newed  as  often  as  I  melted  them  by  pressing  my  hand  upon 
my  face.  I  was  clad  from  head  to  foot  in  a  fur  coat  I  had 


THE  BAGGAGE  LOST. 


297 


bought  ill  the  bazaars  of  IspahaUj  a  (][iiite  invaluable  purchase. 
Externally  the  coat  was  of  yellow  leather,  so  long  that  the 
skii  t  touched  the  toes  of  iiiy  boots,  and  in  circumference  am¬ 
ple  enough  to  lap  over  a  foot  in  front.  It  was  secured  at  the 
neck  with  strings  of  Persian  silk,  and  at  the  waist  with  a 
leather  strap.  The  outside  was  beautifully  worked  in  pat¬ 
terns  with  amber  silk ;  inside  was  the  warm  long  wool  of 
the  Cabul  sheep.  The  sleeves,  which  reached  nearly  to  the 
giound,  and  were  at  the  elbow  ample  as  a  bishop’s  lawn,  were 
almost  tight  at  the  wrist — an  excellent  arrangement  for  ex¬ 
cluding  the  icy  wind  of  the  Persian  plains. 

The  gholams  who  had  charge  of  our  baggage  mules  were 
always  lagging  behind,  so  much  so  that  I  was  afraid  they 
might  get  cut  off  by  robbers,  for  whom  they  would  have  been 
an  easy  prey,  and  our  baggage  a  rich  booty.  I  called  them 
forward,  and  made  them  understand  that  they  were  to  push 
on  before  us  and  get  to  Mux-al-beg  as  soon  as  possible.  But 
they  missed  the  way,  and  we  experienced  perhaps  the  acme 
of  misery  as  travelers,  in  waiting  for  a  couple  of  hours  in  the 
cold  bala-khanah,  without  seats  or  furniture  of  any  descrip¬ 
tion.  J ust  as  we  arrived,  snow  began  to  fall  heavily,  and  this 
added  to  our  anxiety,  for  the  sea  does  not  look  more  pathless 
than  an  Asiatic  plain  in  a  snow-storm. 

After  snow  has  fallen,  the  weather  is  always  less  cold.  But 
the  landscape  the  next  morning,  when  we  straggled  out  about 
sunrise  into  the  deep  snow,  was  one  of  the  most  cheerless 
I  have  ever  beheld.  The  sky  and  the  ground  were  of  one 
whiteness,  and  there  was  no  sign  of  the  position  of  the  sun. 
lor  some  time  our  mules  and  horses  blundered  into  holes  and 
out  of  holes,  until  we  found  the  track.  Through  the  white 
gloom,  we  lode  on,  and  on,  over  the  snow  for  three  hours. 
Then  we  reached  a  ruined  caravanserai.  From  this  we  could 
just  see,  in  the  farthest  distance,  another  building,  which  the 
lelegraph  superintendent  told  me  was  a  second  caravanserai, 


298 


THEOIXGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


and  “the  ground  between  the  two  is,”  he  said,  “no  man’s 
land.”  This  disowned  territory  lies  between  the  govern¬ 
ments  of  Ispahan  and  Shiraz ;  and  although  offenses  have  oc¬ 
curred  upon  it,  the  two  governments  have  never  decided 
which  is  responsible.  “At  this  caravanserai,”  continued  the 
superintendent,  pointing  to  the  mined  and  deserted  building, 
“I  was  robbed.  We  were  passing,  as  we  are  passing  now, 
and  a  lot  of  fellows  rushed  out,  armed ;  they  surrounded  us, 
and  robbed  us  of  every  thing.”  But  we  passed  safely  over 
the  neutral  ground ;  and  though  I  was  so  stiff  with  cold  and 
rheumatism,  on  arriving  at  the  second  caravanserai,  that  it 
took  me  some  five  minutes  to  get  off  my  horse,  I  was  able 
to  enjoy  a  stew  of  kidneys  and  rice,  which  Kazem,  with  the 
assistance  of  about  fifty  ragamufiins  who  stood  round  his 
fire,  and  interfered  on  every  possible  occasion,  had  prepared. 
Where  those  people  came  from,  ivhat  they  were,  what  they 
subsisted  upon,  I  can  not  tell.  But  perhaps  a  Persian  would 
feel  equally  puzzled  with  regard  to  the  hangers-on  about  the 
public-houses  of  England — men  whose  business  in  life  seems 
to  be  that  of  secreting  an  appetite  for  gin  by  standing  out¬ 
side  the  licensed  doors  with  their  hands  in  their  pockets. 

With  some  difficulty,  I  hoisted  my  painful  bones  into  one 
of  the  deep  arches  in  the  wall  of  the  caravanserai,  and  the 
bystanders  watched  every  mouthful,  with  an  eager  eye  to  the 
remainder,  which  I  took  care  should  be  as  large  as  possible. 
My  wife  was  taking  luncheon  in  her  takht-i-rawan.  But  her 
mules  would  not  stand  still:  and  at  last  she  was  obliged  to 
set  off  in  advance  of  the  caravan,  with  no  one  in  attendance 
but  her  mule-driver  and  one  servant.  When  I  mounted  airain 
and  rode  out  of  the  caravanserai,  which  was  called  Ahmina- 
bad,  I  could  see  that  my  yahoo  was  tired  with  trudging 
through  the  deep  snow.  We  had  yet  twelve  miles  to  go  be¬ 
fore  reaching  the  end  of  our  day’s  journey  at  Yezdikhast. 
Snow  began  to  fall,  and  I  had  no  indication  of  the  path  ex- 


ENGLISH  DOCTOR  ROBBED. 


299 


cept  the  half-covered  foot-marks  of  my  wife’s  mules.  I  urged 
my  horse  forward  to  reach  the  takht-i-rawan,  but  could  do  no 
more  than  keep  it  in  sight.  I  was  glad  to  hear  the  cheery 
voice  of  the  Telegraph  superintendent  as  he  galloped  up  be¬ 
hind  me.  The  ground  was  for  the  most  part  level;  but  now 
and  then  there  were  gentle  undulations  which  hid  the  takht-i- 
rawan  ‘‘ups  and  downs,”  which,  he  said,  were  “famous  places 
for  robbers.”  “It  was  about  here,”  he  continued,  “that  Dr. 

^ - 5  of  our  medical  staff,  was  attacked.  A  band  of 

men  sprung  out  upon  him  from  behind  that  turn  in  the  road. 
There  they  stripped  him  literally  naked,  and  tied  him  to  one 
of  those  scrubby  trees.”  “How  was  he  released?”  I  asked. 
“Oh,”  replied  the  superintendent,  “it  was  in  this  way:  a 
foot-passenger,  a  Persian,  arrived  at  the  chapar-khanah  from 
which  the  doctor  had  hired  a  horse,  which  he  was  to  leave  at 
the  next  station,  and  the  keeper  of  the  post-house  naturally 
asked  him  if  he  had  met  the  doctor  on  the  road ;  and  when 
the  traveler  said  ‘Ho,’  then  they  all  suspected  the  truth,  and 
several  of  the  villagers  took  up  their  guns,  and  set  out  to  look 

for  the  doctor,  whom  they  found  in  a  most  miserable  con¬ 
dition.” 

The  superintendent  was  full  of  anecdotes  concerning  the 
perils  of  Englishmen  in  Persia,  and  I,  interested,  took  little 
note  of  the  way.  We  had  found  by  experience  that  nothing 
faster  than  a  walk  could  be  obtained  from  my  horse,  and  had 
resigned  ourselves  too  completely  to  the  slow  rate  of  progress. 
The  supeiintendent  appeared  to  be  suddenly  alarmed,  on 
looking  at  his  watch.  The  falling  snow  and  mist  hid  all  but 
the  plain  from  our  view,  and  I  could  well  understand  that  to 
lose  our  way,  or  to  fail  in  reaching  the  village  before  night¬ 
fall,  might  mean  death.  There  could  be  no  possibility  of 
keeping  in  the  tiack  after  dark,  and  there  was  much  room  to 
doubt  whethei  ^ve  should  be  alive  in  the  morning,  after  pass¬ 
ing  the  cold  hours  of  the  niglit,  without  food,  upon  the  plain. 


300 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


We  pushed  forward,  and  tried  to  keep  the  takht-i-rawan  in 
sight.  Our  baggage-mules  and  all  our  servants  were  far  in 
advance;  the  greater  number  had  not  staid  with  us  at  Ah- 
minabad.  The  difficulty  was,  that  as  we  were  unable  to  see 
the  mountains,  even  those  who  knew,  or  believed  they  knew, 
the  road  had  no  indication  of  our  whereabouts.  At  last, 
when  we  were  becoming  extremely  anxious,  there  loomed  in 
front  of  us  the  vague  outline  of  a  mountain,  which  dissolved 
all  doubts  and  alarms. 

Soon  afterward,  almost  suddenly,  we  came  upon  a  ravine 
in  which  the  village  of  Yezdikhast  is  most  singularly  situated, 
upon  an  isolated  rock,  the  surface  of  which  is  level  with  the 
plain.  The  village  seems  from  a  distance  to  be  seated  on  the 
level ;  from  the  edge  of  the  ravine  the  sight  appears  extraor¬ 
dinary  and  picturesque.  hTearly  a  hundred  feet  from  the 
ground,  some  of  the  inhabitants  peered  at  us  from  the  village 
walls  on  our  arrival.  We  descended,  cold  and  covered  with 
snow,  to  the  bottom  of  the  ravine,  where  tlie  caravanserai 
stood  outside  the  village.  The  recollection  of  our  apartment 
at  Yezdikhast  is  almost  enough  to  induce  catarrh.  To  clear 
away  the  snow  from  the  steps  which  led  to  the  roof  was  no 
easy  matter.  Upon  the  roof  snow  lay  thick,  and  the  only 
room  on  that  elevation  was  as  big  as  a  small  chapel,  with  a 
vaulted  roof  five-and-twenty  feet  from  the  floor,  which  was 
like  a  chalky  road  with  heaps  of  ashes  here  and  there,  the  re¬ 
mains  of  past  fires,  lighted,  in  the  Persian  manner,  in  any  part 
of  the  room.  The  open  door- way  was  wide ;  over  that  we 
suspended  rugs.  High  over  the  door  was  a  square  hole,  al¬ 
most  as  large  and  quite  out  of  reach.  The  idea  of  warming 
such  a  place  was,  of  course,  absurd.  We  lighted  some  logs, 
had  a  hasty  dinner,  and  got  into  our  beds.  'Next  morning 
the  snow  was  so  deep,  and  my  wife  so  unwell,  that  we  de¬ 
termined  to  stay  where  we  were,  but  not  in  the  bala-khanah. 
Kazera  and  I  selected  the  best  of  the  gloomy  arches  which 


A  BLACK  VAULT. 


SOI 


sui loiinded  the  yard,  had  it  swept  out,  lighted  a  fire,  hung  a 
mat  ill  the  dooi-way,  had  our  furniture  moved,  and  my  wife 
carried  down  into  this  brick  vault,  which,  when  the  door-way 
was  screened,  was  utterly  without  light.  After  the  manner 
common  throughout  Persia  in  such  places,  the  domed  roof 
was  coveied  with  a  black  coating  of  bitumen,  and  one  of  our 
difficulties  was  in  dealing  with  the  impenetrable  darkness. 
The  glow  of  the  fire  seemed  pressed  back  into  the  grate,  and 
the  light  of  our  candles  to  extend  no  farther  than  the  table  on 
which  they  were  placed.  All  day  long  we  lived  in  this  Cim¬ 
merian  gloom,  with  our  traveling  thermometer  too  near  zero. 
Oui  stienuous  efforts  to  warm  the  bricks  of  this  black  vault 
involved  a  most  unusual  consumption  of  fire-wood,  which  was 
regarded  by  the  people  as  reckless  extravagance;  but  with 
us  it  was  really  a  question  of  life  or  death,  for  my  wife  had 
symptoms  of  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and  I  could  not  get 
the  temperature  up  to  40  .  I  have  seen  a  more  comfortable 
1  oom  at  the  bottom  of  a  coal-pit  than  that  in  which  we  passed 
the’  13th  of  January  at  Yezdikhast.  The  rough  curtain  over 
the  door  did  not  exclude  the  freezing  wind,  nor  the  brayings 
and  the  shouts  from  the  mules  and  their  drivers,  who  throng¬ 
ed  in  the  yard,  from  which  this  curtain  was  our  only  separa¬ 
tion.  All  day  long  snow  fell  fast  and  thick.  TYe  became  anx¬ 
ious  as  to  the  possibility  of  crossing  the  mountains,  which  we 
should  reach  after  four  days’  march  from  Yezdikhast. 

When  we  set  out  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  for  Shulgis- 
tan,  the  snow  was  inconveniently  deep — so  deep  that  a  biv¬ 
ouac  at  midday,  except  in  the  saddle,  was  out  of  the  question. 
For  eight  hours  we  toiled  through  it,  meeting  no  living  creat¬ 
ure  all  day,  except  one  small  caravan  of  donkeys  from  Shiraz. 
At  Abadeh,  the  next  station  after  Shulgistan,  we  expected  to 
find  an  escort,  provided  by  the  Governor  oiShiraz.  At  Kum- 
i-Shah  I  Iiad  received  a  telegram  from  his  excellency,  forward¬ 
ed  in  translation  by  the  English  clerk  at  Shiraz,  saying  that 


302 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


he  had  heard  of  our  a])proach,  and  that  he  wished  to  place  a 
residence  at  our  disposal  during  our  stay  at  Shiraz,  to  which 
I  replied  that  we  had  already  accepted  an  invitation  from  Mr. 
Odling,  the  resident  medical  officer  of  the  Indo-European  Tel¬ 
egraph  at  Shiraz,  but  that  I  would  be  obliged  if  his  highness 
would  send  us  a  suitable  escort  of  soldiers,  to  accompany  our 
caravan  from  Abadeh  to  Shiraz. 

At  Abadeh  we  were  to  lose  the  company  of  the  superintend¬ 
ent  and  his  servants.  I  noticed  that  all  of  them  were  hu¬ 
manely  provided  with  blue  spectacles,  which  are  indeed  the 
only  means  of  escaping  the  torture  of  inflamed  eyes  in  cross¬ 
ing  these  snow-covered  plains.  The  all-penetrating  dust  of 
summer,  and  the  painful  glare  of  snow  in  winter,  are  sufficient 
to  account  for  the  prevalence  of  sore  eyes  among  the  mule¬ 
teers.  Along  the  way  to  Abadeh,  the  superintendent  gave 
fresh  illustrations  of  brigandage  in  Persia,  and  soon  after  mid¬ 
day  he  and  his  troop  galloped  off.  .  I  sent  on  our  baggage  at 
a  quicker  pace  than  was  possible  for  our  takht-i-rawan,  and 
soon  afterward  I  told  our  own  servants  to  get  in  and  prepare 
an  early  dinner.  M^e  were  left  alone  on  the  plain  with  two 
muleteers.  It  was  about  three  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  as  we 
were  approaching  a  ruined  village  which  lay  half  a  mile  to 
the  left  of  the  path,  that  I  saw  a  number  of  wild  horsemen 
straggling  out  from  these  ruins.  They  galloped  hard  toward 
Kazem,  who  was  perhaps  a  mile  in  front  of  us.  I  had  no 
doubt  that  they  were  robbers.  Their  place  of  hiding  and 
mode  of  attack  were  precisely  such  as  had  been  described. 
To  fight  forty  armed  horsemen  was  impossible,  and  of  escape 
there  was  no  chance.  I  saw  them  gallop  up  to  Kazem,  sur¬ 
round  him,  and  bring  him  back  in  our  direction.  Kazem, 
seated  between  his  saddle-bags,  looked  about  as  the  prisoner 
of  these  Persian  bashi-bazouks.  I  could  see  them  gesticula¬ 
ting  fiercely  around  him.  The  appearance  of  the  band  was 
the  wildest  imaginable.  Hair,  and  clothe?,  and  horses,  they 


A  GUARD  OP  HONOR. 


303 


were  alike  only  in  this  quality  of  wildness.  I  placed  my  horse 
close  beside  the  takhtd-rawan  as  we  advanced  to  meet  them. 
I  had  not  a  doubt  we  were  about  to  be  robbedj  and  perhaps 
ill-treated ;  and  when  half  a  dozen  sprung  forward,  I  was  in¬ 
tensely  surprised,  though  I  am  sure  I  exhibited  no  astonish¬ 
ment,  when,  instead  of  pointing  their  carbines  and  lances, 
they  bowed  to  their  saddles,  and  the  leader,  touching  himself, 
said,  Hakem,”  Then  I  saw  in  a  moment  that  this  wild 
troop  had  been  sent  out  to  meet  us,  as  a  guard  of  honor,  by 
the  ^‘Hakem”  or  Governor  of  Abadeh,  and  that  they  had 
been  waiting,  probably  for  hours,  in  the  ruined  village.^ 

They  had  ridden  to  Kazem  to  inquire  if  we  were  the  ex¬ 
pected  Ferangis,  and,  this  point  being  settled,  they  surround¬ 
ed  us.  The  leader  called  for  the  kalian,  which  is  never  ab¬ 
sent  on  these  occasions  of  ceremony.  Two  of  the  wild  horse¬ 
men  were  concerned  in  producing  the  ceremonious  pipe. 
One,  who  was  pipe -bearer,  carried,  dangling  at  his  saddle, 
far  below  the  belly  of  his  horse,  a  perforated  pot  of  charcoal, 
which  swung  and  jangled  as  he  rode,  and  on  the  other  side 
was  suspended  the  water -bowl  of  the  kalian,  the  stem  and 
fittings  of  which  were  carried  by  the  second  man.  N’o  one 
stopped  while  the  pipe  was  being  prepared;  and  when  I  re¬ 
fused  it,  and  the  machine  was  passed  on  to  the  leader  of  the 
wild  horsemen,  he  supported  it  on  his  saddle,  while  he  labori¬ 
ously  inhaled  the  smoke  in  which  Persians  so  much  delight. 
Meanwhile  the  horsemen  commenced  a  display  on  their  own 


*  The  troop  formed  an  istikhal,  whicli  is  the  Persian  word  for  a  welcom¬ 
ing  party.  The  number  of  men  composing  the  istikhal  is  a  matter  of  great 
importance  with  ceremonious  Persians.  The  native  princes  of  India  are  ex¬ 
tremely  ambitious  in  the  matter  of  gunpowder  salutes  :  the  number  of  guns 
with  which  they  are  welcomed  is  an  indication  of  rank  which  they  regard 
with  jealous  attention  ;  and  so  it  is  in  Persia  with  the  numbers  composing 
t!ie  istikhal.  Terrible  has  been  the  wrath  of  great  men  when  they  were  re¬ 
ceived  outside  Persian  towns  with  a  meagre  istikhal. 


304 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


account.  They  rode  round  and  round  us,  shouting  and  lev¬ 
eling  their  lances  or  their  guns.  These  soon  dashed  away 
over  the  snow,  in  pretended  encounter ;  others  dropped  their 
lances,  and  then,  galloping  at  full  speed,  picked  up  the  weap¬ 
on  without  dismounting.  In  some  form  or  other,  these  ex¬ 
hibitions  were  kept  up  until  we  reached  Abadeh,  where  the 
whole  poi^ulation  seemed  to  have  turned  out  in  the  miserable 
streets.  The  superintendent  had  kindly  promised,  as  the  cha- 
par-khanah  had  a  very  bad  reputation,  to  engage  for  us  the 
best  room  he  could  find  in  the  town.  But  the  streets  were 
so  narrow,  and  so  incumbered  with  frozen  snow,  that  it  was 
impossible  for  the  takht-i-rawan  to  approach  the  town.  To 
the  great  delight  of  the  crowd,  it  was  lowered  from  the  mules 
at  some  distance ;  but  their  curiosity  was  disappointed  when 
the  lady  preferred  to  be  locked  in  her  carriage  until  the  room 
was  ready  for  her  reception.  The  ^^room”  would  be  called 
a  ‘‘shed,”  and  a  very  insecure  shed,  in  any  part  of  Western 
Europe.  Nothing  would  induce  the  door  to  close  within 
about  two  inches,  and  there  was  a  greater  defect  of  the  same 
sort  about  the  other  doors  which  served  as  windows;  the 
floor  was  of  beaten  clay,  the  walls  plastered  with  mud,  and 
the  smoke-dyed  beams  of  the  roof  were  well  hung  with  cob¬ 
webs.  Upon  the  beams  dried  grass  had  been  piled,  and  hung 
in  dusty  festoons. 

Kazem  and  his  helpers  had  hardly  completed  all  the  neces¬ 
sary  arrangements  when  a  train  of  soldiers  and  slaves  arrived 
from  the  governor,  a  petty  potentate,  subject  to  his  highness 
who  rules  at  Shiraz,  bearing  a  present,  which  consisted  of  two 
plates  of  sweetmeats,  two  pots  of  sweet  cream,  a  large  tray 
covered  with  cakes  of  the  thin  bread  of  the  country,  and 
three  live  fowls.  The  governor’s  servants  said  he  was  very 
anxious  that  I  should  pay  him  a  visit.  They  were  extreme¬ 
ly  frank  about  their  master’s  feelings  on  the  subject.  They 
urged  that  it  would  be  such  a  humiliation  if  I  did  not  see 


A  DISPUTE  SETTLED, 


305 


him,  and  that  this  was  the  reason  why  he  was  so  anxious.  I 
had  been  riding  all  day,  I  was  very  tired,  and  we  were  to 
leave  the  next  morning  early ;  but,  however,  I  promised  to 
pay  his  excellency  a  visit,  and  took  with  me,  as  a  present 
from  Mrs.  Arnold  to  the  governor’s  wife,  a  pretty  little  pock¬ 
et-book,  which  he  accepted  with  great  enthusiasm.  He  had 
received  orders,  he  said,  from  the  Firman  Firma  (the  title 
given  by  the  Shah  to  Yahia  Khan,  the  Governor  of  Shiraz), 
that  we  were  to  be  attended  from  Abadeh  to  Shiraz  by  the 
captain  of  the  road-guard  and  six  of  his  men ;  and  after  the 
usual  set-out  of  coffee,  pipes,  and  tea,  I  returned  to  our  din¬ 
ner  of  soup  and  pillau.  But  on  the  way  I  was  stopped  by 
our  charvodar,  from  whose  loud  lamentations  I  gathered  that 
one  of  his  gholams  had  deserted,  taking  with  him  a  few 
krans  belonging  to  the  charvodar.  There  could  be  no  doubt 
that  the  gholam  had  engaged  to  go  to  Shiraz,  and  immedi¬ 
ately  I  took  steps  to  have  him  found,  .which  did  not  appear 
to  be  a  work  of  great  difficulty.  When  the  missing  gholam 
had  been  found  by  the  governor’s  officers,  I  took  him  apart 
and  asked  if  he  was  willing  to  go  the  whole  journey.  He 
said  ‘Wes,”  and  that  he  had  run  away  only  because  of  some 
dispute,  which  the  charvodar  was  willing  to  settle.  I  warned 
him  that,  on  leaving  Abadeh  to  cross  the  mountains,  no  de¬ 
sertions  would  be  permitted,  and  that  our  guard  would  have 
orders  to  look  after  him.  He  seemed  quite  intent  to  give  no 
further  trouble. 

With  three  soldiers  for  escort,  we  set  out  again  over  the 
snow  for  Zurmak,  a  short  march  of  sixteen  miles  upon  a 
nearly  level  plain.  We  had  just  gone  to  bed  in  the  custom¬ 
ary  discomfort  of  the  bala-khanah,  when  there  was  noise  of 
tremendous  knocking  at  the  outer  door  of  the  chapar-khanah, 
which  is  always  exactly  under  the  bala  -  khanah.  This,  we 
soon  learned,  was  the  arrival  of  the  embassy  messenger,  on 
his  monthly  journey  from  Teheran  to  Shiraz,  with  letters  for 


306 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


the  Indian  mail.  To  us  he  brought  a  most  welcome  present 
— six  loaves  of  good  bread  from  Madame  Lsessoe.  A  soldier 
who  traveled  with  him,  and  who  had  orders  to  add  himself 
to  our  escort,  brought  us  a  letter  from  the  Governor  of  Aba- 
deh,  of  which  the  following  is  a  translation : 

“At  the  service  of  the  exalted,  excellent  gentleman,  the 
munificent — I  forward  abundance  of  well-wishing  and  con¬ 
gratulation. 

“  God  willing,  I  trust  you  have  arrived  in  safety  at  the 
stage  of  Zurmak,  and  that  your  time  will  pass  pleasantly.  I 
am  exceedingly  sorry  that  I  have  not  been  of  service  to  you 
during  your  stay  here.  Because  fortune  did  not  assist  me 
the  day  you  left,  and  proper  service  was  not  done  by  me  to 
you,  and  because  I  was  not  ennobled  by  being  able  to  help 
you,  I  am  indeed  sad  and  grieved.  I  feel  certain  that  the 
services  which  should  have  been  done  for  you  have  not  been 
accomplished.  Forgive  me.  God  is  witness,  I  hoped  to  be 
some  days  in  your  company,  and  to  show  my  devotion  to 
you. 

“I  trust  you  will  let  me  know  of  your  arrival  at  Shiraz, 
that  I  may  be  assured  of  the  safety  of  your  noble  person.  I 
have  no  more  to  say. 

“  (Seal  of)  Mohammed  Reza.” 

In  Persia  very  few  persons  sign  their  name — very  few, 
perhaps,  have  the  power  of  doing  so  —  but  many  who  can 
write  prefer  to  give  their  letters  the  greater  dignity  of  their 
seal.  And  as  we  found  at  Teheran,  so  throughout  all  Persia, 
every  body  who  has,  or  is  likely  to  have,  a  financial  transac¬ 
tion  carries  a  seal.  The  raggedest  charvodar,  with  the  sorriest 
troop  of  mules,  produces  the  engraved  stone  or  brass,  which 
is  his  seal,  and  stamps  an  agreement  for  a  journey.  The 
letter  of  Mohammed  Reza  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  flowery 


EXTEEME  COLD. 


307 


and  complimentary  style  common  to  all  Persian  letters  of 
ceremony.  His  excellency  had  provided  four  soldiers  ;  their 
captain  and  the  rest  of  the  troop  were  to  join  us  on  the  top 
of  the  pass  at  Dehbid.  We  were  approaching  the  most  dan¬ 
gerous  part  of  our  travels,  and  the  most  famous  haunts  of 
robbers  in  the  mountains  between  Ispahan  and  Shiraz.  In  the 
w'oiid  it  would  hardly  be  possible  to  find  four  more  ill-looking 
fellows  than  our  escort.  Appearing  upon  any  stage  as  the 
villains  of  a  play,  they  would  have  had  an  immense  success ; 
and,  for  my  own  part,  I  felt  very  little  confidence  in  their 
protection.  A  better  friend  was  the  cold,  which  was  every 
day  becoming  more  intense  as  we  ascended  toward  the  pass 
of  Dehbid.  To  ride  at  a  walking  pace  for  nine  hours  through 
a  freezing  wind  involves  suffering  of  which  even  the  recol¬ 
lection  is  painful;  and  on  the  way  from  Zurmak  to  Khani- 
kora  I  was  not  able  to  walk  part  of  the  way,  because  I  found 
that  if  I  took  to  the  saddle  again  after  my  boots  were  cov¬ 
ered  with  snow,  there  was  danger  of  frost-bites  from  the 
boot  being  incrusted  with  ice.  Seeing  a  brown,  bare  patch, 
about  midday,  I  got  off  to  take  luncheon ;  but  this  was  worse 
than  any  other  place,  for  it  was  not,  as  I  supposed,  cleared  of 
snow  by  wind,  but  by  the  salts  in  the  earth,  which  melted  the 
snow  as  it  fell  into  a  freezing  mixture.  Standing  in  this  ter¬ 
ribly  cold  slush,  I  took  from  the  takht-i-rawan  the  remainder 
of  a  piece  of  brawn,  which  had  been  made  for  us  in  Ispahan. 
But  it  was  frozen  into  crystals  of  ice,  and  had  no  taste  but 
that  of  extreme  cold. 

We  have  an  abiding  recollection  of  the  bala-khanah  at 
Khanikora;  the  cold  was  the  most  severe  we  had  experi¬ 
enced,  and  this  was  one  of  the  most  wretched.  From  the 
yard,  filled  high  with  frozen  snow,  the  mules,  their  drivers, 
and  the  soldiers  crept  quickly  into  the  hovels  at  the  side, 
where  all  lay  down  together.  The  bala-khanah  was  about 
eiglit  feet  square  and  seven  feet  high,  black  with  smoke,  and 


308 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


with  a  hole  for  door -way  or  window  on  every  side.  We 
lighted  a  fire,  and  the  place  was  at  once  filled  with  stifling 
smoke.  We  saw  that  though  the  thermometer  was  many 
degrees  below  zero,  and  a  frosty  wind  blowing  through  the 
wretched  place,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  have  a  fire.  Hav¬ 
ing  stuffed  up  the  windows  and  door -ways  with  rugs  and 
stones  and  sticks  and  planks,  we  got  through  the  night,  and 
learned,  the  first  thing  in  the  morning,  that  the  soldiers  re¬ 
fused,  on  account  of  the  extreme  severity  of  the  cold,  to  pro¬ 
ceed  up  the  defile  to  Dehbid,  which  is  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea. 

There  were  two  good  reasons  for  pushing  onward:  our 
miserable  position  at  Khanikora,  and  our  firm  belief  that 
the  intense  cold  preceded  another  fall  of  snow,  which  would 
block  the  pass,  and  detain  us  not  one,  but  possibly  many,  days 
in  this  wretched  chapar-khanah  without  fire  or  food.  I  sent 
word  to  the  soldiers  by  Kazem  that  we  intended  to  start 
immediately,  and  that  they  could  go,  or  remain  behind,  as 
they  pleased.  I  knew  we  should  have  no  more  of  their  ob¬ 
jections  ;  which,  however,  when  we  got  well  out  upon  the 
frozen  snow,  and  in  the  full  grip  of  the  wind,  had,  I  was 
compelled  to  admit,  a  really  terrible  foundation.  Up  the 
slope  we  passed  in  Indian  file  for  hours,  the  snow  lying  in 
drifts  ten,  fifteen,  and  in  some  places  twenty  feet  deep.  One 
caravan  had  passed  before,  and  in  the  footsteps  of  these 
pioneers  we  found  security.  If  a  horse  or  mule  missed  the 
track,  which  zigzagged  from  side  to  side,  it  was  at  once  half 
buried  in  the  snow.  There  could  be  little  reason  to  feel  fear 
of  robbers,  even  in  this  favorite  j)lace  of  attack,  in  such  weath¬ 
er.  My  face  was  skinned  and  burned  a  reddish  black  in  a 
few  hours  by  the  wind  and  sun.  The  snow  drifted  into  my 
hair,  and  froze  in  lumps  and  icicles  about  my  face.  Not  a 
word  was  heard ;  none  were  in  the  humor  for  talking.  Two 
of  the  soldiers  and  Kazem  lay  down  in  their  large  saddles. 


CAUGHT  IN  A  STOEM. 


309 


and  covered  themselves  over  Avith  their  goat’s-hair  cloaks,  so 
that  no  part  of  their  faces  or  bodies  Avas  visible,  to  hide  them¬ 
selves  from  the  biting  Avind.  At  tAventy  yards’  distance  no 
one  could  have  supposed  that  their  horses  carried  men. 

At  last,  in  the  teeth  of  this  Avind,  Are  reached  the  summit, 
from  Avhich  the  view  Avas  such  as  I  can  fancy  Avould  much 
resemble  the  lookout  in  polar  regions  from  the  top  of  some 
huge  iceberg.  The  apparently  limitless,  snoAv-covered  plain 
looked  flat  as  the  frozen  ocean,  and  the  hills  rising  from  it 
like  the  ice-mountains.  There  was  not  a  tree,  nor  a  house, 
nor  a  bare  patch,  to  vary  the  white  monotony  of  the  scene ; 
and  overhead  the  dull  sky  seemed  loaded  Avith  snow,  which 
Avas  just  beginning  to  fall.  We  were  still  ten  miles  from 
Dehbid,  when  the  path  began  to  descend  gently.  Presently 
Ave  saAV  a  party  of  horsemen  approaching,  Avhom,  from  my  ex¬ 
perience  at  Abadeh,  I  presumed  to  be  friends.  It  was  Hous- 
sein  Khan,  the  captain  of  the  road-guard,  Avho  Avas  to  conduct 
us  to  Shiraz,  and  a  troop  of  his  folloAA^ers.  He  was  a  thin, 
roguish  -  looking  man,  his  saddle  a  perfect  armory  of  hand¬ 
somely  inlaid  Aveapons.  He  made  his  salaam,  in  spite  of  the 
freezing  temperature  and  the  falling  snoAv;  his  pipe-bearer 
produced  the  traveling  kalian.  But  the  ceremonies  of  greet¬ 
ing,  which  in  Persia  can  not  be  disregarded,  were  scarcely 
ended  when  the  storm  broke.  The  AAnnd  hissed,  and  the  snow 
fell  in  blinding  clouds.  Houssein  Khan  was  vanquished  by 
the  weather.  He  had  for  a  little  Avhile  adopted  our  Avalking 
pace,  and  placed  himself  behind  me,  his  men  being  divided 
about  equally  into  a  front  and  rear  guard.  But  the  snow¬ 
storm  and  the  freezing  wind  made  him  think  only  of  himself. 
He  had  come  out  Avith  the  Avind  at  his  back,  and  had  not 
suffered  much.  It  was  now  unendurable,  and  he  trotted  past 
me,  then  gained  a  corner  of  the  road,  and  there  set  off  at  a 
gallop  for  the  shelter  of  Dehbid.  One  by  one,  the  rear-guard 
stole  past,  and  soon  Ave  Avere  left  alone  Avith  our  muleteers. 


310 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


We  could  not  see  more  tlian  a  hundred  yards  before  us, 
and  the  track  was  getting  covered  up.  The  wind  seemed  to 
pierce  my  riding-boots  as  if  they  had  been  made  of  cotton. 
At  last,  after  nearly  two  hours  of  this  difficult  and  solitary 
progress,  we  met  Mr.  Markar,  the  Armenian  clerk  of  the  tel¬ 
egraph  at  Dehbid,  who  had  kindly  ridden  out  to  look  for  us. 
It  was  at  his  house  we  were  to  pass  the  night.  I  was  de¬ 
lighted  to  see  him,  and  he,  the  inhabitant  of  one  of  the  most 
desolate  and  lonely  stations  in  the  world,  was  evidently  glad. 
But  in  such  a  wind  and  storm  it  was  impossible  to  talk.  We 
were  soon  at  his  fireside,  recovering  warmth  from  cups  of  hot 
tea.  We  were  rejoiced  that  we  had  made  the  journey  and 
pushed  through  to  Dehbid.  Had  we  given  way  to  our  escort 
and  staid  at  Khanikora,  we  should  have  been  imprisoned.  It 
would  have  been  quite  impossible  to  leave  that  most  wretch¬ 
ed  chapar-khanah  for  days,  perhaps  for  weeks,  after  such  a 
storm,  which  must  have  filled  the  defile  in  many  places  with 
impassable  depths  of  snow. 

Mr.  Markar’s  house  was  of  the  usual  kind.  A  quadrangle 
of  mud-bricks,  mud-cemented,  with  no  external  opening  but 
through  the  strongly  barred  door ;  the  buildings  having  a 
uniform  height,  that  of  all  the  rooms  placed  round  the  central 
court.  Our  apartment  had  a  door,  and  over  that  a  curtain  of 
Manchester  cotton  ;  but  when  I  got  out  of  bed  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  I  found  the  snow  lying  in  a  white  drift  across  the  room, 
having  been  blown  in  the  night  through  door  and  curtain. 
Mr.  Markar  was  a  sportsman,  and  had  outside  his  wall  what 
he  called  a  fox-trap.  This  was  the  remains  of  a  dead  mule, 
near  which  he  posted  himself  at  night,  and  sometimes  shot 
one  or  two  foxes,  which  are  valuable  for  their  handsome  gray 
fur.  'No  one  in  Persia  seems  to  understand  the  proper  prep¬ 
aration  of  fur.  The  Persians  have  a  means  of  temporary 
preservation  sufficient  for  the  skins  until  they  reach  a  Eu¬ 
ropean  market.  In  Ispahan  and  Shiraz  there  is  a  consid- 


KHANIKEEGAN. 


311 


erable  traffic  in  these  skins,  which  are  bought  by  the  mer¬ 
chants  at  about  two  krans  apiece.  They  are  then  sent  to 
England  or  Russia,  to  be  dressed  and  made  up.  Although 
among  the  higher  classes  much  fur  is  worn  in  Persia,  none  is 
made  up  in  the  country. 

Houssein  Khan  and  his  men  were  glad  to  leave  the  mount¬ 
ain-tops.  They  looked  blue  with  cold  when  we  were  getting 
the  caravan  together  to  proceed  toward  Shiraz.  We  could 
take  the  warmest  part  of  the  day  for  leaving  Dehbid,  as  the 
distance  to  Khanikergan,  the  next  station,  was  only  twelve 
miles.  For  the  whole  of  the  way  the  ground  was  covered 
deep  with  snow.  One  caravan  had  set  out  before  us  and 
marked  a  track,  but  we  met  no  one.  W^e  were  prepared  by 
evil  report  to  find  none  but  most  wretched  lodging  at  Khan¬ 
ikergan,  but  had  not  placed  our  expectations  low  enough. 
The  caravanserai  was  an  old  stone  building,  and  the  sur¬ 
rounding  arches  were  not,  as  usual,  raised  above  the  yard, 
but  were  on  the  same  level.  We  had  the  best,  but  it  was 
disagreeably  evident  that  it  had  been  recently  occupied  by 
mules;  and  from  the  smoke-holes  in  the  centre  of  the  roof 
the  melting  snow  dripped  slowly  into  the  hole  which  served 
as  a  stove  when  this  place  had  been  occupied  by  animals  who 
cook  their  food.  We  could  only  have  a  fire  at  the  cost  of 
being  stifled  with  smoke,  so  we  preferred  to  lay  a  stone  over 
the  hole  in  the  roof — an  undertaking  which  brought  down 
the  snow  in  heaps  into  the  room.  Until  sunset,  the  stone 
walls  of  this  noisome  place  trickled  with  cold  moisture,  which 
then  froze  hard  in  icieles  and  stalactites.  We  had  no  securi¬ 
ty  that  some  curious  mule  would  not  push  his  head  through 
the  flimsy  covering  of  the  door-way.  But,  however,  we  slept ; 
and  when  Kazem  brought  the  usual  kettle  of  hot  coffee  with 
the  first  dawn  of  the  morning,  we  were  rejoiced  to  think  that 
Khanikergan  was  to  be  a  place  of  the  past. 

At  Meshed-i-Murghaub,  which  we  reached  on  the  evening 


312 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAKAVAN. 


of  the  21st  of  January,  the  chapar-khanah  was  outside  the 
village,  which  was  surrounded  with  a  mud-wall.  This  is  one 
of  the  most  dangerous  centres  in  Persia ;  and  as  we  rode  up, 
a  number  of  the  villagers  armed  with  guns,  and  accompanied 
by  others  who  had  no  weapons,  came  out  to  meet  us,  making 
a  great  noise,  in  which  I  could  hear  the  Persian  word  for  “  rob¬ 
bers  ”  frequently  mentioned.  It  appeared  that  a  band  of  rob¬ 
bers  had  been  seen  in  the  neighborhood,  and  these  poor  peo¬ 
ple  had  taken  up  arms  to  defend  themselves  and  their  prop¬ 
erty  in  case  of  attack.  We  were  looked  upon  as  a  valuable 
re-enforcement,  and  as  a  possible  source  of  danger ;  for,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Persian  laws,  the  districts  in  which  robbery  occurs 
liave  to  make  good  the  losses  sustained  by  travelers;  and 
this,  though  inoperative  when  Persians  are  the  subject  of  at¬ 
tack,  is,  the  people  well  know,  not  likely  to  be  disregarded 
when  Europeans  have  been  plundered.  Not  that  they  believe 
the  proceeds  will  be  conveyed  to  the  plundered  party :  they 
have  not  sufficient  conviction  of  the  honesty  of  their  Govern¬ 
ment  for  that ;  but  they  are  shrewd  enough  to  know  that  the 
robbery  would  afford  excellent  ground  for  the  extortion  of 
money  by  the  officers  of  the  governor. 

A  Persian  argues  with  himself  that  when  there  is  trouble 
in  the  country,  some  people  will  have  to  pay,  with  life  or  prop¬ 
erty,  or  both ;  and  it  is  most  likely  this  will  fall  upon  those 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  circumstances  of  his  country  have 
never  led  him  to  think  of  justice  as  an  abstract  matter,  or  of 
justice  as  pursuing  criminality  with  discrimination  or  discre¬ 
tion.  He  knows  by  experience  that  the  victims  of  justice  are 
more  accidental  than  those  of  crime ;  and  when  that  authority 
which  stands  for  justice  in  Persia  is  abroad,  his  first  thought 
is  to  fly  away,  or  to  hide  every  thing  which  he  possesses. 
When  a  European  traveler  has  been  robbed  or  murdered,  it 
has  happened  that  large  encampments  of  Iliats,  and  even  vil¬ 
lages,  have  been  deserted,  owing  to  the  uuiversal  fear  among 


A  SMALL  DIFFERENCE. 


313 


these  people  of  being  selected  to  suffer  punishment  for  the 
criminals.  On  such  occasions  somebody  must  be  hanged  or 
tortured  to  death;  and  if  the  criminals  are  not  taken  red- 
handed,  Persian  justice  sees  none  so  likely  to  be  guilty  as 
those  nearest  to  the  scene  of  crime. 

In  every  village  there  were  a  certain  number  of  men  ac¬ 
customed  to  carry  arms,  tofanghees  (gun-carriers)  they  are 
called.  More  or  less,  these  men  are  under  the  orders  of  the 
governor.  He  can  require  their  attendance  in  any  part  of  the 
district  surrounding  their  village,  either  as  an  escort  for  trav¬ 
elers  or  merchandise,  or  for  the  destruction  of  robber  bands. 
But  no  one  seems  to  place  much  confidence  in  a  tofanghee. 
Generally  he  is  a  man  with  a  gun,”  and  nothing  more.  In 
the  South  of  Persia,  the  attentions  of  the  tofanghees  to  the 
traveler  are  frequent  and  embarrassing.  Sometimes  they 
march  out  with  him  in  the  morning,  whether  he  will  or  no ; 
and  when  they  are  tired,  when  they  approach  the  boundary 
of  the  next  village,  or  especially  when  they  think  there  is  a 
band  of  robbers  at  hand,  they  ask  for  money  and  for  leave  to 
make  their  salaam.  Surrounded  by  a  dozen  wilddooking  men 
well  armed,  and  asking  for  money  in  this  attitude,  a  doubt  has 
crossed  my  mind  whether  they  are  so  very  different  from  the 
robbers  against  whom  they  pretend  to  be  a  protection. 

14 


314 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Classic  Persia. — The  Tomb  of  Cyrus. — Date  of  the  Euins. — Passargardag. — 
Columns  of  Cyrus’s  Tomb.  — Color  of  Euins.  — Neglected  by  Persians. 
— Kawamabad. — Takht-i-rawan  in  Danger. — Houssein  Khan  and  the 
Sheep. — Village  of  Sidoon. — Euins  of  Istakr. — Situation  of  Persepolis. — 
Araxes  or  Bendemeer. — Staircase  at  Persepolis. — Darius  and  Xerxes. — 
Cuneiform  Inscriptions. — Study  of  Cuneiform. — Chronology  of  Assyria. — 
Great  Hall  of  Xerxes. — The  Persepolitan  Lion. — Hall  of  a  Hundred  Col¬ 
umns. — Professor  Eawlinson  on  the  Euins. — Tomb  of  Darius. — “The 
Great  God  Ormazd.” — The  Bringer  of  Evil. — Dios  and  Devils. — Errors 
in  Eeligion  and  Art. — Pedigree  of  Architecture. — Persians,  Medes,  and 
Greeks. — Origin  of  Ionic  Architecture. — Leaving  Persepolis. — Plain  of 
Merodasht. 

At  Murgliaiib,  we  approach  the  grandest  relics  of  the  time 
when  Persia  was  the  great  empire  of  Cyrus,  of  Darius,  and 
of  Xerxes.  At  three  hours’  ride  from  the  village  the  plain  is 
fringed  with  low  hills,  among  which  stands,  close  by  the  path 
from  Ispahan  to  Shiraz,  the  tomb  of  Cyrus.  Hear  this,  we 
had  seen  rising  from  the  snow  all  that  remains  of  his  city  of 
Passargardse,  where  the  inscription  am  Cyrus,  the  King, 
the  Achaemenian,”  may  be  read  more  than  once  upon  the 
ruins.  It  is  partly  from  the  proximity  of  these  unquestion¬ 
ably  genuine  ruins,  and  also  from  the  dignity  and  obviously 
funereal  character  of  this  massive  mausoleum,  that  it  has  be¬ 
come  accepted  as  the  original  resting-place  of  the  body  of 
the  great  king. 

The  period  which  these  highly  interesting  ruins  illustrate 
is  concurrent  with  the  Achaemenian  dynasty,  or,  to  put  it  in 
another  form,  it  is  the  period  extending  from  the  accession  of 
Cyrus,  in  560  b.c.,  to  the  death  of  Alexander,  in  323  b.c.  The 


CLASSIC  PEESIA. 


315 


reigns  specially  illustrated  are  those  of  Cyrus,  of  Darius,  of 
Xerxes,  and  Artaxerxes.  We  shall  fix  the  time  more  clearly 
still  in  the  mind  if  we  remember  that  the  buildings  of  Per- 
sepolis  are  of  about  the  same  date  as  those  of  the  Acropolis 
of  Athens.  We  may  find  many  points  of  curious  and  inter¬ 
esting  comparison  between  the  work  of  Darius  and  that  of 
Pericles ;  and  regarding  both,  we  see  at  once  how  great  a 
disadvantage  the  Persians  suffered  in  not  having  at  hand 
such  marble  as  that  of  Pentelicus. 

It  was  on  this  plain  of  Murghaub  that  Cyrus  won  Persia. 
I  think  it  is  Professor  Rawlinson  who  tells  us,  in  his  Five 
Ancient  Monarchies,”  how  King  Darius  was  bound,  whenever 
he  visited  this  ancient  city  of  Passargardse,  to  present  to  each 
Persian  woman  who  appeared  before  him  a  sum  equal  to 
twenty  Attic  drachmas,  or  about  sixteen  shillings  of  English 
money,  according  to  a  custom  established  in  commemoration 
of  the  services  rendered  by  the  sex  in  the  battle  wherein  Cy¬ 
rus  first  repulsed  the  forces  of  Astyages. 

We  dismounted  at  the  tomb  of  Cyrus,  and  walked  about  in 
the  snow,  while  Kazem  made  a  fire,  preparatory  to  the  man¬ 
ufacture  of  an  omelet.  As  a  rule,  Oriental  monuments  owe 
much  to  the  grandeur  of  their  situation ;  and  this  is  no  excep¬ 
tion.  They  are  set  in  solitude ;  they  have  a  surrounding  of 
space,  which  is  all  their  own.  When  the  thought  of  the  trav¬ 
eler  is  arrested  by  so  vast  a  retrospect,  he  becomes  more  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  natural  grandeur  of  the  desert ;  and  there 
seems  to  be  a  hush,  a  natural  silence  in  the  air,  whicli  moves 
around  these  most  ancient  monuments  as  if  Xature  herself 
were  paying  homage  at  these  shrines  of  departed  greatness. 
For  more  than  two  thousand  four  hundred  years  this  tomb 
has  defied  the  leveling  hand  of  Time ;  and  another  period  of 
not  less  duration  may  apparently  be  sustained  without  fur¬ 
ther  injury. 

The  tomb  was  originally  siuTounded  by  columns,  set  prob- 


316 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ably  in  a  double  row,  with  a  covered  space  between.  But 
none  are  left  standing.  Most  of  the  columns  have  disappear¬ 
ed  entirely ;  some  are  j^rostrate ;  and  of  only  a  few  is  there  a 
broken  fragment  remaining  in  position.  These  columns  were 
not  colossal,  probably  not  more  than  eighteen  feet  high  ;  and 
the  space  inclosed  is  hardly  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  across.  In  the  centre  of  this  space  stands  the  tomb,  ap¬ 
proached  by  a  pyramid  of  steps,  about  forty-five  feet  square 
at  the  base.  These  steps,  the  rise  of  each  being  two  feet, 
are  composed  of  large  blocks  of  marble,  the  color  of  which 
has  darkened  to  a  yellowish  brown.  Upon  a  platform  about 
eighteen  feet  from  the  ground,  and  twenty  feet  square,  stands 
the  tomb — a  small,  solid,  unadorned  building,  composed  of  a 
few  blocks  and  huge  slabs  of  marble  ;  the  whole  being  scarce¬ 
ly  more  than  fifteen  feet  high  from  the  platform  to  the  peak 
of  the  marble  roof.  In  shape  it  exactly  resembles  a  child’s 
‘‘Noah’s  ark,”  with  the  boat  arrangement  cut  off.  At  one 
end  there  is  a  low,  massive  door-way,  through  which,  if  the 
remains  of  Cyrus  really  rested  there,  they  were  carried,  to  be 
deposited  upon  the  floor  of  this  little  temple.  By  all  writers, 
including  our  own  Professor  Rawlinson,  this  is  accepted  as 
the  resting-place  of  the  great  king ;  and  it  is  believed  that  his 
body  was  placed  here  in  a  golden  coffin. 

That  it  is  a  tomb,  or  that  it  is  the  tomb  of  some  very  ex¬ 
alted  personage,  or  that  it  was  constructed  about  the  same 
date  as  the  neighboring  ruins  of  Passargardae,  which  are  un¬ 
questionably  erections  made  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  Some  travelers  appear  to  have  thought  that  the 
marble  has  not  sufficient  aspect  of  antiquity  to  warrant  this 
conclusion.  But  what,  then,  would  they  say  of  the  Parthe¬ 
non  ?  The  marble  masonry  upon  the  Acropolis  of  Athens  is 
similar  to  this  upon  the  plain  of  Murghaub,  in  massiveness,  in 
coloring,  and  in  the  absence  of  mortar  or  cement,  of  which 
none  was  used  by  the  builders  in  either  place.  But  the  tomb 


KAWAMABAD. 


317 


of  Cyrus  has  a  less  fresh  appearance  than  the  walls  of  the 
Parthenon.  Alas  that  no  Historic  Monuments  Bill  can  apply 
to  the  plains  of  Murghaub  !  There  is  nothing  to  attract  the 
acquisitive  powers  of  an  Elgin,  for  the  marbles  are  utterly 
without  inscription  or  adornment,  and  there  is  nothing  to  hin¬ 
der  ravage  by  the  Persians.  I  have  never  seen  in  any  Mo¬ 
hammedan  people  an  exhibition  of  the  slightest  desire  for  the 
protection  of  the  great  historic  monuments  of  which  they 
have  been  or  are  possessed.  The  pashas  of  Stamboul  looked 
on  unconcerned  while  the  marbles  of  ancient  Greece  were 
burned  to  make  lime  for  building  cattle-sheds.  Were  it  in 
ruins,  they  would  as  soon  burn  the  stones  of  Santa  Sophia  as 
the  timbers  of  an  old  man-of-war  ;  and  for  the  Persians,  these 
great  ruins,  which  should  be  the  pride  and  most  sacred  treas¬ 
ure  of  their  country,  are  nothing  more  than  useless  heaps  of 
tumbled  stone.  If  any  man  needed  lime  in  the  neighborhood, 
or  stone  to  build  a  caravanserai,  he  would  probably  use  the 
stones  of  Cyrus’s  tomb, or  the  columns  of  the  Hall  of  Darius; 
and  these  invaluable  records  and  memorials  of  a  period  con¬ 
cerning  which  very  much  more  than  our  present  knowledge 
might  be  gathered  by  excavation  and  research  upon  the  spot, 
are  regarded  with  no  more  concern  or  attention  than  the 
bones  of  a  dead  camel. 

From  Cyrus’s  tomb  we  rode  through  a  narrow  plain  for 
several  hours  to  the  village  of  Kawamabad,  a  collection  of 
mud-huts  lying  near  the  mountains.  There  was  no  chapar- 
khanah  at  Kawamabad,  and  we  were  obliged  to  hire  a  room 
in  the  village,  to  get  at  which  we  had  to  pass  through  two 
cow-sheds  and  into  a  walled  straw  yard,  from  which  our  apart¬ 
ment,  upon  nearly  the  same  level,  was  entered.  The  takht-i- 
rawan  could  not  enter  the  door -way  of  this  range  of  build¬ 
ings,  and  was,  as  usual,  left  outside.  But  immediately  upon 
its  being  lowered  to  the  ground,  the  villagers  who  stood  look¬ 
ing  on  said  that  would  never  do.  ‘‘  Robbers  !  robbers  !”  they 


318 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  EY  CAKAVAN. 


cried,  and  pointed  to  the  hills.  They  were  in  a  state  of  great 
excitement.  A  band  of  robbers  had  visited  Kawamabad  that 
day ;  it  was  feared  they  would  return,  and  the  poor  villagers 
did  not  want  to  be  responsible  for  the  rifling  of  our  takht-i- 
rawan.  It  was  impossible  for  the  mules  to  carry  it  within 
the  building,  so  the  villagers  took  the  work  upon  themselves; 
and  with  many  invocations  of  ‘‘Allah,”  of  “Ali,”  and  “Hous- 
sein,”  and  with  an  amount  of  force  of  which  a  third,  if  dis¬ 
ciplined,  would  have  been  more  than  suflicient,  they  lugged 
the  takht-i-rawan  into  greater  safety. 

If  the  band  which  had  visited  Kawamabad  were  disposed 
to  attack  our  caravan,  I  expected  we  should  meet  them  next 
day  during  our  ride  to  Sidoon.  In  addition  to  Houssein 
Khan  and  his  soldiers,  half  a  dozen  villagers,  with  guns  in 
their  hands,  set  out  with  us  in  the  morning,  and  by  their 
advice  we  kept  the  baggage-mules  close  up,  and  allowed  no 
straggling  on  the  part  of  those  animals.  But  Houssein  Khan 
did  not  seem  apprehensive;  and  when  the  villagers  were 
tired  and  returned,  he  was  quite  ready  to  do  a  little  highway 
robbery,  or,  rather,  sheep-stealing,  on  his  own  account.  We 
were  in  a  region  of  moderate  fertility;  there  were  a  few 
flocks  of  shee23  and  goats  ujDon  the  plains,  each  flock  tended 
by  one  or  two  herdsmen.  Whenever  we  ajDproached  a  flock 
of  sheep,  Houssein  Khan  galloped  off,  as  I  at  first  supposed, 
to  consult  the  herdsman  as  to  the  security  of  the  road,  and 
the  position  of  the  rabble  musketeers  who  were  supposed  to 
guard  the  path  under  his  command.  Gradually  I  perceived 
that  these  rides  had  a  more  strictly  personal  object.  From 
every  one  of  these  visits  he  returned  with  a  sheej)  across  his 
saddle,  or  upon  that  of  one  of  his  men,  which  was  soon  aft¬ 
erward  set  upon  its  legs,  until  there  was  a  small  flock  of  half 
a  dozen  following  him,  under  the  care  of  one  of  our  own  Per¬ 
sian  bashi-bazouks.  At  first  I  thought  Houssein  Khan  was 
buying  the  animals  for  food ;  but  we  were  within  two  days’ 


EUINS  OF  ISTAKE. 


319 


march  of  Shiraz,  and  it  was  evident  that  one  would  have  been 
enough  for  the  whole  caravan.  I  had  not  sufficient  Per¬ 
sian  at  command  to  obtain  a  thorough  explanation.  But  I 
called  Kazem,  and  made  him  understand  that  I  thought  the 
herdsmen  were  being  robbed,  and  told  him  to  let  Houssein 
Khan  know  at  once  of  my  suspicions,  to  watch  what  was 
done  with  the  sheep,  and  to  report  to  me  every  thing.  Ka¬ 
zem  smiled,  as  if  he  thought  such  concern  was  extremely 
prudish,  and  said  something,  in  which  a  word  sounding  like 
“  wedocle  ”  occurred.  This,  I  knew,  is  the  Persian  mode  of 
expressing  forced  and  illicit  contributions ;  and  in  Sidoon  I 
learned  that  the  sheep  were  sold  by  Houssein  Khan  at  about 
two-and-sixpence  each.  The  chapar-khanah  at  Sidoon  lay  in 
a  terribly  cold  situation,  in  the  shade  of  a  range  of  mount¬ 
ains  ;  but  we  bore  the  discomforts  of  the  place,  with  the  rec¬ 
ollection  that  on  the  morrow  we  should  see  Persepolis,  and  in 
two  days  end  our  journey  in  Shiraz. 

The  natural  formation  of  the  country  in  the  neighborhood 
of  these  illustrious  ruins  is  very  suggestive  and  imposing. 
Journeying  from  Ispahan,  the  plain,  at  one  end  of  which 
stand  the  remains  of  Persepolis,  is  approached  through  a 
vast  natural  gate -way,  in  which  run  the  road  and  the  river 
Pulvar,  and  of  which  the  pillars  are  strangely  shaped  and  the 
many-colored  mountains  of  the  hardest  limestone.  The  ta¬ 
ble-rock,  or  mountain,  on  the  right  is  very  remarkable ;  and 
in  this  entrance,  which  is  too  wide  to  be  called  a  gorge,  are 
found  the  massive  ruins  of  the  city  of  Istakr,  which  one  has 
not  patience  to  examine  carefully  when  so  near  to  the  far 
more  interesting  remains  of  Persepolis.  At  Istakr  the  road 
winds  to  the  left  round  the  bold  spur  of  the  mountains  which 
forms  the  background  of  Persepolis. 

On  approaching  the  ruins  of  the  halls  and  temples  and 
tombs  of  Darius  and  liis  descendants,  the  traveler,  recalling 
perhaps  to  mind  all  that  ho  has  seen  at  Baalbec,  at  P^estum, 


320  THKOU.GH  PE  ESI  A  BY  CAEAVAIf. 

and  upon  the  Athenian  Acropolis,  will  surely  be  struck  with 
a  sense  of  disappointment,  because  there  is  here  no  outline 
of  ancient  hall  or  temple,  no  realizable  structure  in  which  he 
can  place  the  form  of  Darius  or  Xerxes.  There  is  nothino- 
more  than  remains  of  the  temples  of  Jupiter  in  Athens  and 
in  Rome — ^^a  few  solitary  or  connected  columns,  and  the  mass¬ 
ive  stones  of  some  part  of  an  ancient  hall  or  propylgeum. 
The  distant  aspect  of  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  will  fall  below 
anticipation  as  much  as  the  results  of  their  examination  in 
detail  will  exceed  expectation.  In  fact,  the  most  interesting 
ruins  in  the  world,  because  they  are  covered  and  adorned 
with  eloquent  records  of  the  past,  these  stones  are  not  ar¬ 
ranged  for  a  coup  d^ceil.  ’ 

The  mule- path  passes  close  to  the  side  of  the  mountain 
from  which  the  platform  of  Persepolis  is  projected  into  the 
plain  of  Merodasht.  Through  this  plain  runs  the  river,  which 
in  classic  times  was  called  Araxes,  afterward  known  as  Bunda- 
mir,  or  Bendemeer,  as  Moore  has  called  it  in  “  Lalla  Rookh.” 
Standing  upon  the  platform  of  Persepolis,  the  view  across 
the  river  is  uninterrupted  for  more  than  twenty  miles.  The 
extreme  height  of  this  platform  where  it  faces  the  plain  is 
about  forty-five  feet,  its  length  from  north  to  south  about  fif¬ 
teen  hundred  feet,  and  the  meagre  depth  from  east  to  west 
about  eight  hundred  feet. 

The  grandest  work  at  Persepolis  is  in  connection  with  this 
platform.  The  masonry  of  the  supporting  walls  of  the  plat¬ 
form  is  irregular,  the  blocks,  mostly  of  huge  size,  presenting 
angles  of  every  degree.  The  surface  of  this  immense  work  is 
true  and  sound  as  it  was  two  thousand  years  ago.  But  it  is 
not  in  this  that  the  glory  of  this  platform  rests.  At  its  great¬ 
est  height,  the  platform  is  ascended  from  the  plain  by  a  stair¬ 
case  which,  for  the  magnificence  of  its  proportions  and  the 
beauty  of  construction,  deserves  to  have  been  regarded  as 
one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  The  staircase  at  Persepolis 


CUNEIFORM  INSCRIPTIONS. 


.321 


has  had  no  equal  in  ancient  or  modern  times.  Compared 
with  this,  a  work  probably  of  the  time  of  Darius,  the  marble 
stairs  which  lead  to  the  Parthenon  are  insignificant,  and  the 
imperial  steps  in  the  Roman  Coliseum  barbarous.  A  regi¬ 
ment  of  cavalry,  ten  abreast,  could  ride  easily  iip  the  double 
flights  of  the  Persepolitan  staircase.  '  The  steps,  which  ap¬ 
pear  to  be  composed  of  the  hardest  syenite,  are'  twenty-two 
feet  wide ;  each  step  rises  only  three  and  a  half  inches,  and 
has  a  tread  of  fifteen  inches.  In  some  places  the  blocks  of 
the  masonry  in  the  staircase  are  so  large  that  three  or  four 
steps  have  been  hewed  out  of  the  same  piece  of  stone. 

We  little  thought  when,  in  spite  of  the  timid  counsels  of 
Mr.  Erskine,  then  British  niiuister  at  Athens,  we  passed  a 
day  upon  the  Plain  of  Marathon,  that  a  few  years  afterward 
we  should  stand  among  the  ruins  of  the  Hall  of  Darius,  the 
place  to  which  he  probably  returned  after  that  unsuccessful 
expedition  against  the  Greek;  or  that  when  we  stood  in  sight 
of  that  splendid  landscape,  near  w^here 

“  A  king  stood  on  the  rocky  brow 
That  looks  o’er  sea-girt  Salamis,” 

we  should  afterward  enter  the  magnificent  ruin  of  the  Prppy- 
laeum  of  this  King  of  Xerxes  at  Persepolis.  It  is  this  build¬ 
ing  which  stood  at  the  top  of  the  grand  staircase,  and  the 
most  massive  of  the  ruins  upon  the  platform  of  Persepolis  are 
those  of  this  edifice.  Upon  the  piers  there  are  inscriptions 
in  cuneiform  letters,  which  as  clearly  as  the  winged  bulls 
above  these  writings  testify  the  relationship  between  the  As¬ 
syrians  of  Nineveh  and  the  Medes  of  Persepolis.  The  inscrip¬ 
tion  is  the  same  on  each  pier,  and  is  written  in  three  lan¬ 
guages.  It  has  been  translated  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  into 
the  following :  . 

‘^The  great  god,  Ahura-mazda  (Ormazd) ;  he  it  is  who  has 
given  (made)  this  world,  who  has  given  mankind,  who  has 

14^-^* 


322 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


made  Xerxes  king,  both  king  of  the  people  and  lawgiver  of 
the  people.  I  am  Xerxes  the  king,  the  great  king,  the  king 
of  kings,  the  king  of  the  many  peopled  countries,  the  sup¬ 
porter  also  of  the  great  world,  the  son  of  King  Darius  the 
Achsemenian.  Says  Xerxes  the  king,  by  the  grace  of  Or- 
mazd  I  have  made  this  gate  of  entrance  (or  this  public  port¬ 
al)  ;  there  is  many  another  nobler  work  besides  (or  in)  this 
Persepolis  which  I  have  executed,  and  which  my  father  has 
executed.  Whatsoever  noble  works  are  to  be  seen,  we  have 
executed  all  of  them  by  the  grace  of  Ormazd.  Says  Xerxes 
the  king,  may  Ormazd  protect  me  and  my  empire.  Both  that 
which  has  been  executed  by  me  and  that  which  has  been 
executed  by  my  father,  may  Ormazd  protect  it.” 

This  is  repeated  twelve  times  in  all ;  and,  looking  upon 
the  original  with  Sir  Henry’s  translation  in  one’s  mind,  it  is 
surprising  how  so  much  can  be  conveyed  in  so  few  letters. 
Hot  much  more  than  a  fourth  of  the  space  which  could  be 
required  for  this  inscription  in  English  is  occupied  by  the 
cuneiform  letters. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  in  detail  the  process  by 
which  scholars  have  acquired  the  art  of  deciphering  these 
and  similar  inscriptions ;  of  forcing  the  secret  of  their  long- 
concealed  meaning  from  these  strange  characters,  which  no 
more  resemble  the  Arabic  or  Persian  letters  of  our  day  than 
do  the  forms  of  the  English  alphabet.  It  is,  however,  perse¬ 
verance  and  acuteness,  rather  than  scholarship,  which  are  re¬ 
quired  for  this  discovery.  The  study  begins  by  observing, 
from  obvious  similarity  of  letters,  when  the  same  word  occurs 
in  the  same  or  in  different  inscriptions.  The  importance  of 
the  word,  if  a  long  one,  or  its  unimportance,  if  short  and  fre¬ 
quently  recurring,  will  be  observed.  At  last,  by  considering 
many,  if  not  all,  possible  combinations  of  the  supposed  mean¬ 
ing  of  one  word,  some  light  will  dawn  with  regard  to  three 
or  four  words,  perhaps  a  large  part,  or  even  the  whole,  of  an 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  ASSYRIA. 


323 


inscription.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  method  in  which  the 
meaning  of  these  inscriptions  has  been  mastered.  It  is  gen¬ 
erally  admittedj  I  believe,  that  no  one  has  done  more  in  this 
work  than  Professor  Grotefend,  of  Gottingen,  of  whom  Mr. 
Fergusson  says,  in  his  ‘^Nineveh  and  Persepolis,”  that  we 
owe  to  him  the  key  which  has  led  to  all  we  know  in  this 
matter.”  Professor  Grotefend  made  laborious  analysis  of 
two  inscriptions  among  those  which  are  met  with  at  Per- 
sepolis.  The  first  is  that  which  may  be  seen  upon  the  ruins  of 
the  Hall  of  Darius,  and  which  has  been  translated :  ‘^Darius, 
the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the  king  of  nations,  the  son 
Hystaspes  the  AchaBmenian.  It  is  he  who  has  executed 
this  sculpture.”  The  second  is  upon  the  Hall  of  Xerxes,  and 
in  English  is  as  follows:  ‘^Xerxes,  the  great  king,  the  king 
of  kings,  the  son  of  Darius  the  Achgemenian.”  These  inscrip¬ 
tions  obviously  afforded  hopeful  matter  for  analysis.  The 
frequent  recurrence  of  the  word  translated  ‘‘king”  suggest¬ 
ed  that  it  was  a  title  of  ceremonious  honor;  the  position  of 
the  word  “Darius”  at  the  head  of  the  first,  and  its  place  in 
the  second  inscription,  suggested  that  it  was  a  proper  name ; 
while  its  occurrence  in  the  second  inscription  immediately 
before  the  words  “  the  Achsenienian,”  which  appear  in  the 
first,  led  naturally  to  the  supposition  that  “  Hystaspes  ”  was 
in  like  manner  a  proper  name.  But  while  the  briefest  consid¬ 
eration  of  this  mode  of  acquisition  may  increase  our  respect 
for  the  actual  labor  of  scholars  who  devote  their  energies  to 
this  work,  it  also  suggests  how  many  imperfections  there  may 
be  in  any  knowledge  so  acquired  —  discrepancies  of  signifi¬ 
cation  which  in  some  cases  it  may  be  forever  impossible  to 
repair. 

While  we  are  dwelling  for  a  moment  upon  this  order  of 
research  and  discovery,  it  will  be  interesting  to  note  the  ac¬ 
count  given  by  Professor  Rawlinson  of  the  finding  of  collat¬ 
eral  evidence  in  support  of  the  generally  accepted  chronolo- 


324  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN’. 

gy  of  the  Assyrian  history,  upon  which  is  based  that  of  the 
Ach£emenian  dynasty.  Among  the  records  of  Assyrian  his¬ 
tory  was  discovered  the  mention  of  phenomena  obviously  a 
description  of  the  effects  of  a  total  solar  eclipse.  This  was 
stated  to  have  taken  place  in  the  month  Sivan  (or  June),  in 
the  ninth  year  of  King  Asshur-darain-il  II.  Sufficient  was 
known  of  the  annals  of  the  kings  of  Assyria  to  identify  with 
some  degree  of  certainty  the  century  in  which  this  particu¬ 
lar  monarch  lived ;  and  the  time  of  his  reign  appeared  to  be 
fixed  with  unquestionable  accuracy  when  the  calculations  of 
astronomers  showed  that  the  only  total  eclipse  of  the  sun 
falling  about  the  middle  of  the  year,  visible  in  Assyria  be¬ 
tween  B.c.  847  and  b.c.  647,  within  which  time  the  reign  of 
Asshur-damin-il  II.  must  certainly  have  fallen,  was  the  one 
which,  according  to  these  figures,  must  have  taken  place  on 
June  1.5th,  b.c.  763. 

With  regard  to  the  Propylseum  of  Xerxes,  of  the  two  read¬ 
ings  given  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  “ this  public  portal”  is 
probably  better  than  “this  gate  of  entrance,”  because  these 
gates  were  in  all  Oriental  countries,  from  the  earliest  dawn 
of  Christian  times,  places  of  business  as  much  as  of  passage. 
Upon  the  inner  sides  of  the  massive  stones  of  this  “  public 
portal”  are  sculptured  in  low-relief  the  massive  forms  of 
Avinsred  bulls,  some  with  human,  others  with  bovine,  heads. 
The  largest  of  these  quadrupeds  have  the  human  head,  cov¬ 
ered  Avith  a  tiara,  and  on  the  shoulders  Avings,  similar  in  all 
points  to  those  Avhich  Mr.  Layard  introduced  to  the  Avorld 
from  Xineveh. 

:  Upon  the  vast  platform  at  Persepolis  there  are  remains  of 
at  least  five  important  buildings — four  lying  to  the  right  of 
the  Propylseum  of  Xerxes,  and  no  two  of  them  being  pre¬ 
cisely  upon  the  same  level.  The  first  of  these  important 
buildings  is  the  Propylseum;  and  near  that  a  staircase  (as 
elegant  in  construction,  though  much  smaller  than  the  grand 


GREAT  HALL  OF  XERXES. 


325 


flights  of  stairs  rising  from  the  plain  to  the  platform)  leads 
to  the  level  of  the  building  known  as  the  Great  Hall  of  Xerx¬ 
es.  This  name  “  Hall  ”  is  given  in  ignorance  of  its  real  ob¬ 
ject  or  designation.  Mr.  Fergusson,  the  distinguished  archi¬ 
tect,  to  whoseAVork"^  I  have  before  alluded,  has  written  upon 
these  ancient  stones,  and  has,  in  fancy,  reconstructed  them 
with  remarkable  insight,  though,  like  most  who  have  writ¬ 
ten  about  them,  he  has  never  beheld  the  ruins  of  Persepolis. 
But,  had  he  seen  these  remains,  he  could  not  have  described 
with  greater  truth  and  accuracy  the  real  ditficulty  in  forming 
any  supposition  apart  from  the  actual  evidence  afforded  by 
inscriptions  and  ruins,  than  he  has  in  the  true  remark:  ‘^At 
Persepolis  we  have  pillars,  door-ways,  and  windows,  but  not 
one  vestige  of  the  walls  that  clothed  them,  or  of  the  roofs 
they  supported.’’  That  the  Great  Hall  and  other  buildings 
of  Persepolis  w’ere  roofed,  is  pretty  obvious,  both  from  the 
shape  of  the  capitals  of  the  columns  and  from  the  number  of 
the  columns,  which  are  not  placed,  as  in  Greek  buildings, 
merely  at  the  sides  of  the  structure,  but  at  equal  distances 
over  all  the  floor.  We  can  see  that  the  columns  which  sup¬ 
ported  the  portico  of  the  Great  Hall  of  Xerxes  were  of  mar¬ 
ble.  Those  which  remain  are  crowned  with  capitals  com¬ 
posed  of  two  bulls’  heads,  placed  neck  to  neck,  forming  an 
excellent  rest  for  the  entablature.  These  columns  are  fluted, 
and  have  upon  their  pedestals  that  ornamentation  which  was 
so  long  considered  as  a  Greek  invention — the  honeysuckle, 
with  the  bud  of  the  lotus;  in  fact,  the  decoration  known 
everywhere  as  “  the  Greek  honeysuckle.”  In  the  north  por¬ 
tico  of  tliis  Great  Hall  there  is  yet  more  striking  evidence  of 
the  debt  which  the  perfection  of  architecture  in  Greece  owes 
to  Persia,  to  Assyria,  and  possibly  to  Egypt.  In  the  capitals 
of  these  columns  there  is  an  elongated  or  double  volute,  al- 


*  Fergusson’s  “Nineveh  and  PerBepolis.” 


32G 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


most  identical  in  figure  with  that  which  is  seen  upon  the 
later  buildings  of  Greece ;  while  upon  the  walls  of  door- ways 
there  are  sculptures,  truly  Oriental,  of  kings  on  thrones  or  on 
foot,  attended  by  slaves  holding  the  parasol  of  state,  or  the 
fly-chaser,  equally  an  emblem  of  royal  dignity.  By  the  Per¬ 
sians  this  hall  is  called  “  Chehil  Minar,”  or  ‘‘Forty  Columns,” 
which  is,  in  fact,  a  common  name  for  any  columned  buildings 
of  grand  dimensions  in  Persia.  The  shabby  old  pavilion  at 
Ispahan,  with  twenty  tall  columns  of  wood,  set  with  grimy 
mirrors,  is  called  “  Chehil  Minar.” 

I  do  not  feel  at  all  sure  that  the  columns  of  the  interior  of 
some,  if  not  all,  of  the  great  buildings  of  Persepolis  were  not 
of  wood.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  in  those  remote  days, 
the  lion  had  the  characteristics  of  strength  and  suj3remacy 
which  are  still  attributed  to  the  “  king  of  beasts.”  At  Per¬ 
sepolis,  the  angular  sides  of  the  staircase  leading  to  the  Great 
Hall  of  Xerxes  are  filled  in  with  very  powerful  sculptures 
in  low-relief,  in  which  an  animal  of  enormous  strength,  with 
much  resemblance  to  a  lion,  has  fixed  its  teeth  and  claws 
into  the  hind-quarters  of  a  bull,  which  fills  the  higher  angle 
of  the  space  by  rearing  and  turning  its  uplifted  head  in  help¬ 
less  anguish  from  its  devourer.  From  that  time  to  this  there 
have  been  lions  in  the  mountainous  region  round  Shiraz;  and, 
apropos  of  Persian  lions,  I  shall  never  forget  the  tone  of 
plaintive  envy  in  which  the  formidable  Zil-i-Sultan  spoke  of 
his  father,  the  Shah,  “  having  killed  a  lion.”  In  this  feat,  he 
seemed  to  consider,  lay  the  real  superiority  of  the  Shah  over 
himself. 

It  is  noticeable  in  the  buildings  of  Persepolis,  as  compared 
with  the  Parthenon,  that^there  is  nothing  resembling  the  con¬ 
tinuous  action  displayed  in  the  processions  upon  the  frieze 
()f  the  Greek  building.  At  Persepolis,  upon  the  sides  of  the 
staircases  and  in  other  places,  there  are  processions ;  but,  as 
a  rule,  one  figure  is  exactly  like  the  next ;  there  is  no  connect- 


HALL  OF  A  HUNDRED  COLUMNS. 


327 


ed  action.  The  modern  ornamentation  of  Teheran  is  like  that 
of  Persepolis  in  this  respect :  a  soldier  occupies  a  panel,  anoth¬ 
er  soldier  of  the  same  pattern  is  seen  in  the  next,  and  so  on. 

The  grandest  of  the  buildings  of  Persepolis,  the  ruins  of 
Avhich  are  known  as  those  of  *Hhe  Hall  of  a  Hundred  Col¬ 
umns,”  stood  behind  the  Great  Hall  of  Xerxes.  The  bases  of 
the  columns  and  parts  of  the  outer  walls  remain.  We  can 
trace  the  regular  position  of  the  columns,  but  can  not  decide 
whether,  being  of  wood,  they  have  perished ;  or,  being  of  stone, 
have  been  carried  of£  for  the  adornment  of  some  mosque  or 
palace.  They  were  certainly  not  very  large.  The  area  covered 
by  this  building  was  considerable ;  but  neither  this  nor  any  of 
the  buildings  of  Persepolis  could  have  had  any  thing  like  the 
grand  proportions  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  at  Athens.  In 
readinjj  Professor  Hawlinson’s  careful  work,  The  History 
of  the  Five  Ancient  Monarchies,”  one  is  often  reminded  of 
the  disadvantage  under  which  an  author  labors,  be  he  ever  so 
learned  and  acute,  who  writes  of  buildings  and  of  countries 
lie  has  never  beheld.  Had  Professor  Rawlinson  seen  the 
buildings  of  Italy,  of  Greece,  of  Egypt,  and  of  Asia,  he  never 
would  have  wu’itten  of  these  ruins  of  Persepolis,  and  in  par¬ 
ticular  of  this  Hall  of  a  Hundred  Columns,  as  the  great  pil¬ 
lared  halls  which  constitute  the  glory  of  Arian  architecture, 
and  which,  even  in  their  ruins,  provoke  the  wonder  and  ad¬ 
miration  of  modern  Europeans,  familiar  with  all  the  triumphs 
of  Western  art,  with  Grecian  temples,  Roman  baths  and  am¬ 
phitheatres,  Moorish  palaces,  Turkish  mosques,  and  Christian 
cathedrals.”  This  is  just  the  point  in  which  the  buildings  of 
Persepolis  fail.  They  are  deeply  interesting  as  records  of  the 
Achacmenian  dynasty;  they  are  illustrated  books  of  priceless 
value  in  their  inscriptions  and  sculpture ;  but  for  grandeur, 
and  even  solidity,  they  never  were  comparable  to  some  of  the 
buildings  of  Athens,  nor,  among  modern  and  Christian  build¬ 
ings,  to  the  Church  of  St.  Isaac  in  St.  Petersburg. 


328 


THKOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CABAVAIf. 


The  floor  of  the  Hall  of  a  Hundred  Columns  is,  for  the 
most  part,  buried  deep  under  rubbish,  the  washings  of  ages 
from  the  neighboring  mountains.  Against  the  stoutest  blocks 
of  the  richly  sculptured  walls  this  detritus  lies  undisturbed, 
concealing  sometimes  the  legs  of  a  winged  bull,  at  others  the 
lower  garments  of  a  king,  and  how  much  besides  which  the 
passing  traveler  can  not  see  nor  guess.  What  new  lights  for 
history,  what  treasures  of  antiquity,  may  be  lying  within 
two  or  three  feet  of  the  surface  in  these  neglected  ruins  !  In 
the  walls  of  this  hall  there  are  deep  recesses  or  niches,  the 
likeness  of  which  is  invariably  met  with  in  every  modern  Per¬ 
sian  house. 

That  portion  of  the  platform  farthest  from  the  great  stair¬ 
case  and  the  Propylaeum  of  Xerxes  is  occupied,  first,  with 
the  Palace  of  Darius,  and,  last,  with  the  Palace  of  Xerxes ; 
and  in  the  far  background,  in  the  side  of  the  mountain,  orig¬ 
inally  approached  by  steps,  is  the  tomb  of  Darius.  Above 
the  small  door- way,  which  lets  into  a  cave  hewed  from  the  sol¬ 
id  rock,  the  face  of  the  mountain  is  smoothed  and  sculptured. 
In  the  foreground  of  this  work  of  ancient  art  is  the  crowned 
figure  of  the  king,  and  at  the  opposite  end,  on  the  same  level, 
an  altar  with  fire  burning  upon  it.  Above  this  altar  is  the 
round  full  orb  of  the  sun ;  and  hovering  in  mid-air,  between 
the  sun  and  the  monarch,  is  what  Mr.  Fergusson  calls  “his 
ferouher,  or  disembodied  spirit.”  But  this  is  unintelligible. 
Professor  Rawlinson  suggests,  with  greater  show  of  reason, 
that  this  figure  is  the  emblematic  resemblance  of  Ahura-maz- 
da,  the  “  good  ”  god  of  the  Medes,  the  Ormazd  of  the  inscrip¬ 
tions  of  Xerxes.  The  figure  is  that  of  a  man  crowned  and 
robed  like  King  Darius,  his  feet  unsupported,  his  body  passed 
through  a  ring,  which  connects  a  pair  of  vast  wings ;  'and  of 
this  Professor  Rawlinson  says,  “  The  winged  circle,  with  or 
without  the  addition  of  the  human  figure,  which  was  in  As¬ 
syria  the  emblem  of  the  chief  Assyrian  deity,  Asshur,  became 


THE  BRINGER  OF  EVIL. 


329 


with  the  Persians  the  ordinary  representation  of  the  Supreme 
God,  Ormazd.” 

The  language  of  the  inscriptions  of  the  time  of  Darius  has 
been  described  as  an  old  form  of  Persian,  closely  allied  to  the 
Vedic  Sanskrit  of  India,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  more 
modern  Zend  of  Persia,  on  the  other;  and  the  religion  seems 
to  have  been  the  ancient  representative  of  the  faith  of  the 
Parsees  of  to-day.  In  this  tomb  of  Darius,  the  greatest 
place  in  the  heavens  is  given  to  the  sun,  and  on  earth  to  the 
altar  of  fire,  the  terrestrial  emblem  of  the  sun.  Then  in  the 
heavens,  again,  Ahura-mazda,  or  Ormazd,  is  the  god  of  all 
good  things,  prayed  to,  and  revered  by  humanity  below. 
We  know  that,  according  to  the  belief  of  the  time,  Ormazd 
was  not  all-powerful.  Whatsoever  things  were  good  came 
from  him,  and  to  him  all  the  hopes,  and  fears  of  mankind 
under  the  sun  were"  addressed.  But  there  was  another  be¬ 
sides  Ormazd,  the  spirit  of  evil,  Angro  -  mainyus,  who,  for 
obvious  reasons,  does  not  appear  in  this  sculpture.  He,  the 
bringer  of  all  trouble  and  pain,  was  helped  by  “  divs,”  bad 
spirits,  whose  delight  was  to  thwart  the  work  of  Ormazd. 
Is  it  possible  that  these  were"  the  forerunners  of  our  own 
familiar  devil,  the  belief  in  whose  existence  and  obnoxious 
activity  is  passing  away  from  this  generation  like  a  bad 
dream  ?  In  time  to  come,  when  the  orthodox  devil  has  fol¬ 
lowed  the  “divs”  of  the  time  of  Darius  into  the  tomb  of  the 
past,  there  will  remain  none  the  less  a  true  and  inexpugnable 
devil  in  the  world,  a  sum  of  evil  made  up  by  individual  ig¬ 
norance  and  excess,  of  disregard  of  duty  toward  one’s  self 
and  one’s  neighbors,  a  devil  within  ourselves,  whi6h,  how¬ 
ever,  will  be  the  more  easily  attacked,  and  the  more  probably 
vanquished,  when  we  shall  have  recognized  that  it  is  no  su¬ 
pernatural  force  which  opposes  our  appreciation  of  the  en¬ 
during  pleasures  which  follow  in  the  train  of  those  lines  of 
human  conduct  whicli  we  rightly  call  virtues. 


330 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


In  religion,  the  people  of  Western  Europe,  proud  of  their 
civilization  and  enlightenment,  have  been,  however,  the  vic¬ 
tims  of  an  error  now  grown  inveterate.  In  daily  contempla¬ 
tion  of  the  doctrines  of  Christ  as  the  oracles  of  God,  they 
have  been  surprised  to  learn  that  the  germs  at  least  of  that 
which  is  most  ennobling  and  sublime  in  these  doctrines  had 
been  long  present  in  the  world  before  the  birth  of  Christ. 
And  instead  of  feeling  strengthened  in  their  faith,  and  in  ac¬ 
ceptance  of  these  doctrines,  by  this  larger  and  fuller  evidence 
of  their  truth,  and  their  title  to  the  allegiance  of  mankind, 
they  have  been  prone,  not  to  abandon  these  doctrines,  for 
that  is  beyond  their  power,  but  to  feel,  as  it  were,  disap¬ 
pointed,  in  learning  that  ideas  which  they  cherished  as  su¬ 
pernatural  revelation  are  not  less  honored  as  the  transmitted 
experience  of  humanity. 

A  like  error  has  been  made  in  the  lesser  sphere  of  art. 
To  many  generations  past,  the  Greeks  have  been  in  art  a 
people  endowed  with  capacity  for  leaping  at  once  into  the 
highest  realms  of  knowledge,  gifted  with  genius  unapproach¬ 
able  by  later  peoples ;  the  men  who  from  nothing,  and  with 
no  previous  light,  gave  to  Athens  her  gorgeous  temples,  and 
to  Rome  all  that  she  has  knowm  of  art.  But  now  a  truer 
conception  is  passing  into  the  mind  of  the  world.  Such 
supernatural  ability  as  has  been  in  past  times  ascribed  to  the 
Greeks  is  seen  not  to  be  the  monopoly,  much  less  the  sole 
invention,  of  any  people.  The  roots  of  the  tree  of  knowledge, 
it  is  now  perceived,  may  be  hidden,  but  must  exist ;  and  it 
is  understood  that  the  magnificence  of  Ionic  and  Corinthian 
architecture  could  not  spring  fully  .clothed  even  from  the  rich 
soil  of  Greece,  but  that,  like  every  good  thing  in  the  pos¬ 
session  of  mankind,  these  must  be  the  results  of  Ions:  and  la- 
borious  growth,  of  transmission  or  transplantation  from  one 
scene  to  another  in  the  life  of  the  universe. 

Highest  in  the  records  of  history  stands  the  foundation  of 


PEDIGEEE  OF  ARCHITECTUEE. 


331 


the  Egyptian  monarchy;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  oldest 
buildings  upon  the  soil  of  the  earth — the  Pyramids  of  Ghi- 
zeh — were  erected  about  seven  centuries  after  that  date,  in 
3200  B.c.  We  know  that  Assyria  was  a  country  of  renown 
two  thousand  years  before  that  birth  occurred  at  Bethlehem, 
in  the  lower  lands  of  those  wonderful  valleys  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates,  from  which  all  Europe,  except  Turkey,  reck¬ 
ons  the  beginning  of  time.  We  can  trace  in  the  sculptures 
of  Nineveh  and  in  those  of  Persepolis  a  substantial  resem¬ 
blance.  We  know  from  the  names  inscribed,  and  from  other 
evidence,  that  the  latter  is  the  descendant  of  the  former, 
though  probably  with  an  interval  of  a  thousand  or  fifteen 
hundred  years.  The  winged  bull  of  Nineveh  has  its  ances¬ 
tors  in  Egypt,  and  its  successors  in  the  same  image  and  like¬ 
ness  at  Persepolis.  The  bulbous  columns  of  Egypt  and  of 
Nineveh  have,  in  the  later  work  of  Persepolis,  given  birth 
to  columns  containing  features  which  had  not  then  appeared 
in  Greece,  but  which  were  soon  to  be  seen  there,  improved 
and  refashioned,  if  not  reproduced,  by  the  most  artistic  peo¬ 
ple  of  the  world.  The  historical  connection  is,  link  by  link, 
in  the  mind  of  many  a  school-boy. 

The  most  illustrious  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  country 
we  have  been  treading  shows  us, first,  the  victorious  Cyrus; 
then  the  victor  of  the  Nile,  Cambyses,  the  master  of  Egypt; 
then,  of  the  same  dynasty,  the  great  Darius,  who  carried  his 
legions  to  Greece,  and  met  defeat  upon  the  Plain  of  Marathon. 
Again,  another  association  of  the  Greeks  with  the  Medes 
and  Persians  occurs  through  the  ambition  of  Xerxes,  whose 
name  stands  imperishably  upon  the  roll  of  fame — not  for  his 
successes,  not  for  his  works  at  Persepolis  and  elsewhere,  but 
for  his  defeats  at  Thermopylae  and  Salamis.  Of  that  period, 
Persepolis  is  the  illustration  in  stone;  and, looking  upon  the 
ruins,  I  am  quite  disposed  to  concur  in  the  opinion  so  con¬ 
fidently  expressed  by  Mr.  Fergusson,  that  “  all  that  is  Ionic 


332 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJir. 


in  the  arts  of  Greece  is  derived  from  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris 
and  the  Euphrates.”  The  volute,  that  distinctive  feature  of 
Ionic  architecture,  suggested  perhaps  by  the  use  of  bulls’ 
heads  or  rams’  heads  in  couples  for  the  capitals  of  columns, 
was  in  use  at  Persepolis  before  it  passed  to  Greece;  while 
in  Greece  there  was  as  yet  only  to  be  seen  the  massive  sim¬ 
plicity  of  Doric  architecture. 

At  Persepolis  we  have  witnessed  not  only  the  origin  of  the 
volute,  but  also  the  “  Greek  honeysuckle,”  before  that  decora¬ 
tion  had  passed  into  Greece ;  and  there,  too,  upon  the  Palace 
of  Darius,  are  those  well-known  rosettes,  so  often  repeated 
upon  Ionic  door-ways  ;  the  same  which  may  be  seen  upon  the 
Erechtheurn  of  Athens,  and  which  are  faithfully  copied  upon 
a  thousand  edifices,  including  the  well-known  church  in  the 
Euston  Road  of  modern  London.  Greek  art  brought  out  in 
stronger  and  more  perfect  form  the  members  of  Eastern  ar¬ 
chitecture.  The  sculptors  of  Persepolis  did  not  attempt  to 
carve  their  columns  in  human  form,  and  to  lay  the  burdens  of 
architecture  upon  the  heads  of  slaves.  The  Caryatides  are 
essentially  a  Greek  production ;  but  is  it  possible  to  concede 
to  them  all  the  merit  of  perfect  originality  when  one  sees 
vast  stones  piled  upon  the  human  heads  of  these  winged  bulls, 
which  in  part  present  to  us  a  form  very  like  that  of  man  ? 

It  was  only  in  obedience  to  the  setting  sun,  the  god  of  the 
builders  of  Persepolis,  that  we  reluctantly  turned  our  backs 
upon  the  tomb  of  Darius,  and  descended  by  the  grand  stair¬ 
case  to  the  plain.  May  the  sun  shine  upon  that,  the  noblest 
work  of  Persepolis,  in  all  its  present  completeness,  until  it 
shall  be  in  the  East  as  it  is  in  the  West,  and  there  shall  be  no 
more  fear  of  ignorance  accomplishing  the  ruin  of  the  finest 
ascent  ever  made  by  human  hands !  It  is  recorded  in  the 
Second  Book  of  Chronicles,  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  that  when 
her  majesty  went  into  Solomon’s  house,  and  saw  the  ascent 
by  which  he  went  up  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  there  was  no 


PLAIN  OF  MERODASHT. 


333 


more  spirit  in  her;”  she  could  contain  her  admiration  of  his 
works  no  longer,  and  her  heart  poured  over  with  delight  in  the 
words,  ‘‘  It  was  a  true  report  which  I  heard  in  mine  own  land 
of  thine  acts.”  It  is  hardly  possible  to  doubt  that,  had  she 
been  received  by  King  Xerxes  at  Persepolis,  her  amazement 
and  rapture  would  have  been  far  greater.  It  is  probable,  too, 
that  then  the  plain  across  which  we  rode  toward  the  stream 
of  the  river  Araxes,  or  Benderaeer,  was  not  treeless,  arid,  and 
waste  as  at  present.  We  have,  indeed,  good  evidence  that 
there,  as  in  so  many  other  places,  Persia  has  gone  backward 
in  production.  Chardin,  the  French  traveler,  to  whom  the 
world  has  been  so  much  indebted  for  its  knowledge  of  Per¬ 
sia,  says  of  this  plain  of  Merodasht,  that  it  is  fertile,  riche, 
abondante,  belle  et  deiicieuse.”  When  we  passed  over  it  in 
the  present  year,  it  produced  nothing  but  a  few  scrubby 
thorns,  nibbled  by  the  goats  of  the  village  of  Kinara,  to  which 
our  steps  were  directed. 


334 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAKAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Kinara. — A  Family  House. — A  Troublesome  Cat. — Houssein  Khan  and  the 
Sheep. — Soldiers  and  their  Debtors. — Zergan. — Persian  Scenery. — A  Per¬ 
sian  Funeral.— Zergan  to  Shiraz. — Pass  of  Allahu  Akbar. — Snow-storm  at 
Shiraz. — The  English  Doctor. — Gate  of  Shiraz. — A  Good  Persian  House. — 
A  Present  from  Firman  Firma.— Letter  from  His  Excellency.— A  Dervish 
at  the  Gate. — Meidan  of  Shiraz. — Visit  to  Firman  Firma. — Widow  of  Teki 
Khan. — Firman  Firma’s  Character. — Poverty  of  Persia. — Passion-play  in 
Mohurrem. — Bazaar  of  Shiraz. — Tomb  of  Hafiz.  —  Odes  inscribed  on 
Tomb. — Translation  of  Plafiz. — The  New  Garden. — Tea  in  an  Imaret. 

Outside  the  village  of  Kinara  there  was  a  hole  in  the  mud- 
wall  through  which  we  might  have  passed  the  takht-i-rawan ; 
but  had  we  done  so,  the  narrowness  of  the  streets  would  have 
prevented  its  approach  to  the  house  in  which  a  room  had 
been  secured  for  us.  We  halted,  therefore,  in  a  field  of  young 
wheat,  at  a  place  where  rubbish  had  been  flung  out  from 
the  houses  of  the  village  and  over  the  wall  in  such  quantity, 
that,  now  it  was  frozen  hard  and  innoxious  as  rock,  we  could 
walk  up  the  slope  and  over  the  wall  into  the  village. 

The  mode  of  access  prepared  us  for  the  characteristics  of 
Kinara.  The  family  in  whose  house  we  were  to  lodge  was 
much  disturbed  by  our  sudden  arrival.  We  had  struggled 
through  the  dirty  snow  in  the  narrow  street,  and  entered  the 
low  door  in  the  mud-wall  of  the  house.  In  the  yard,  deep  in 
filth,  much  of  which  was  happily  frozen,  were  two  mules  and 
a  donkey,  and  about  their  legs  a  legion  of  fowls,  of  which  one 
lay  headless  at  the  requisition  of  Kazem,  whose  imperious  airs 
in  a  Persian  village  were  sometimes  very  amusing.  Up  a 
narrow  passage,  past  a  stable  in  which  two  donkeys  were  eat- 


A  FAMILY  HOUSE. 


335 


iug  straw,  there  were  some  mud-plastered  steps  leading  to  the 
roof  of  the  buildings  surrounding  the  yard.  Upon  this  roof 
was  the  shed  which  it  was  the  delight  of  the  family  to  let  to 
us  for  the  night,  with  the  prospect  of  some  payment  in  the 
morning. 

Like  the  roof,  our  apartment  was  of  mud.  In  the  hole 
which  was  the  door,  there  was  a  shutter  of  wood,  which  could 
not  be  made  to  close  by  half  a  dozen  inches;  and  in  the  hole  at 
the  farther  end,  which  served  as  a  window,  there  was  nothing 
to  keep  out  the  frosty  wind  until  we  stuffed  a  saddle-bag  into 
the  refrigerating  aperture.  The  roof  was  extensive;  and  in 
another  place  there  was  a  second  shed,  in  which  the  family 
hay  and  melons  were  preserved,  and  into  which  the  contents 
of  our  apartment,  previous  to  our  occupation,  were  hurriedly 
thrust  by  the  retreating  inhabitants,  some  of  whom  sat  on 
the  roof,  while  some  stood  among  the  other  animals  in  the 
yard,  contemplating  with  avid  interest  every  one  of  our  move¬ 
ments.  Upon  any  pretense,  and  sometimes  without  pretext, 
one  of  them  would  appear  upon  that  portion  of  the  roof  which 
was  in  front  of  our  place  of  refuge ;  and  at  last  I  was  obliged 
to  draw  a  line  upon  the  dried  mud,  and  intimate  that  I  should 
deal  in  a  summary  manner  with  any  who  overstepped  that 
boundary.  Whatever  they  had  to  bring  must  be  laid  down 
at  this  line,  and  none  but  Kazem  might  pass  over  it.  The 
precision  of  this  arrangement  met  with  the  entire  satisfaction 
of  the  family.  But  there  was  one  member — a  black  cat — 
whom  I  could  not  instruct,  and  through  the  evening  and 
night  this  green-eyed  monster  sought,  often  with  success,  to 
violate  the  sanctity  of  our  mud -cabin.  To  secure  greater 
privacy  and  higher  temperature,  I  had  nailed  a  camel’s-hair 
rug  inside  the  imperfect  door,  and,  as  a  fortification  against 
the  cat,  had  weighted  the  lower  end  with  heavy  stones.  As 
for  the  wooden  door,  that,  like  nine  doors  out  of  ten  in  Persia, 
presented  no  hinderance;  and  with  time  on  his  side,  the  tom- 


336  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

cat  was  always  more  successful  than  I  with  the  rug.  Twice 
in  the  bitter  cold  of  the  night  I  expelled  the  enemy,  and  re¬ 
newed  our  defenses.  But  the  cat  was  always  victorious,  and 
in  the  morning  I  found  he  had  been  successful  in  carrying  off 
the  greater  part  of  a  tongue  which  had  been  placed  in  a  po¬ 
sition,  as  I  believed,  of  absolute  security.  On  the  whole,  we 
were  not  sorry  to  leave  Kinara.  But,  forgetting  the  squalor 
of  the  village  and  the  lodging,  looking  across  the  five  miles 
of  level  plain  to  the  still  visible  ruins  of  Persepolis,  with  their 
hio-h  backsTround  of  mountains  varied  in  color  as  in  shape,  we 
were  ready  to  admit  that  it  would  be  difficult  indeed  to  name 
a  scene  of  greater  natural  beauty  or  of  higher  antiquarian  in¬ 
terest. 

Our  Avay  to  Zergan,  the  next  station,  wound  through  low 
hills  at  nearly  a  continuous  level.  About  midday  we  came 
to  a  bridore  crossing  a  river  which  was  swollen  and  foam- 
ino-  with  melted  snow.  There  was  a  wretched  hovel  at  hand, 
from  which  half  a  dozen  of  Houssein  Khan’s  ragged  tofan- 
ghees  emerged,  and  hovered  round  us  while  we  sat  in  the 
only  patch  of  shade,  to  make  a  luncheon  of  lamb  and  eggs. 
During  the  morning  their  chief  had  possessed  himself  of  two 
more  sheep  from  flocks  which  were  feeding  near  our  path; 
and  we  felt  so  indignant  at  the  continuance  of  this  system 
of  robbery,  carried  on  under  our  eyes,  and  probably,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  victims,  with  our  connivance,  that  we  resolved 
to  be  silent  no  longer,  and  desired  Kazem  to  ask  Houssein 
Khan  for  an  explanation  of  what  we  wished  him  to  tell  the 
khan  appeared  to  us  nothing  better  than  robbery.  The  cap¬ 
tain  of  the  guard  sat  on  a  stone  close  by,  with  his  ivory-hilted 
sword  laid  across  his  knees,  a  dagger  and  two  pistols  in  his 
belt,  when  Kazem  delivered  my  demand  for  an  explanation 
of  his  conduct.  I  could  see  he  was  very  much  disturbed  by 
the  inquiry.  He  came  himself  to  explain  that  he  had  done 
no  wrong  in  taking  the  sheep ;  he  declared  that  they  repre- 


ZKRGAN. 


337 


sented  a  payment  on  account  of  loans  he  had  made  to  the 
peasants,  and  that  this  was  the  only  way  he  could  obtain  con¬ 
sideration  for  his  advances.  Although  Kazem  smiled  incre¬ 
dulity  as  he  assisted  me  in  comprehending  Houssein  Khan’s 
explanation,  I  was  Obliged  to  accept  it,  and  to  admit  that 
possibly  it  might  be  correct,  although  I  do  not  believe  there 
was  a  word  of  truth  in  his  statement.  It  is,  however,  un¬ 
questionable,  that  in  Persia  money-lenders  are  most  often 
soldiers — the  only  class  which  feels  strong  enough  to  secure 
payment.  This  is  so  general,  that  a  defaulting  debtor  is 
looked  upon  as  in  a  particular  degree  obnoxious  to  the  mili¬ 
tary  class,  who,  if  they  get  an  opportunity,  subject  him  to 
severe  ill-treatment  encourager  les  aiitres  in  the  pay¬ 

ment  of  their  borrowings.  I  have  met  with  people  who  have 
seen  the  dead  body  of  a  debtor,  stripped  naked  and  dragged 
by  the  heels  with  a  rope,  in  the  midst  of  a  party  of  soldiers, 
through  the  bazaars  of  one  of  the  chief  towns  in  Persia,  by 
way  of  warning  to  those  who  owe  money  not  to  fail  in  dis¬ 
charging  their  obligations  to  the  usurious  military  before 
they  pay  the  debt  of  nature. 

Houssein  Khan  was  in  a  verv  black  humor  when  we  re- 

ft/ 

sumed  our  journey,  toward  the  end  of  which  there  lay  be¬ 
tween  us  and  Zergan  a  vast  morass,  extending  for  miles  from 
mountain  to  mountain.  The  charvodar  and  he  had  had  a 
quarrelsome  difference  of  opinion  as  to  which  was  the  best 
path,  and  I  decided,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  soldier,  that 
the  muleteer  should  select  the  way  for  the  caravan.  He  had 
the  greater  property  at  stake.  He  and  his  mules  were  in¬ 
habitants — natives,  in  fact — of  the  village  we  were  approach¬ 
ing,  and  the  result  justified  my  decision. 

We  met  a  string  of  dromedaries  coming  out  of  Zergan. 
Their  swarthy  riders  were  seated  between  the  humps  of  the 
animals,  enduring  the  swaying  motion,  and  passing  us  with 
imperturbable  gravity.  English  reserve  ”  is  a  common  sub- 

15 


338 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ject  of  joke,  but  it  is  certainly  not  greater  than  Oriental  re¬ 
serve.  It  is  more  true,  perhaps,  that  the  reserve  practiced 
on  some  occasions  by  Englishmen  appears  inconsistent  with 
the  absence  of  reserve  upon  other  occasions.  But  in  the  des¬ 
erts  of  Persia  and  Arabia  it  is  common  experience  to  meet 
but  one  or  two  persons  in  a  whole  day’s  journey,  and  not  by 
any  means  uncommon  to  pass  these  without  uttering  a  word. 
Sometimes  the  ejaculation  “  Salaam !”  is  exchanged  between 
one  or  two  of  the  members  of  a  caravan,  but  a  prolonged 
greeting  is  of  very  rare  occurrence. 

I  was  about  to  say  that  the  situation  of  the  chapar-khanah 
at  Zergan  is  very  remarkable  ;  but  I  am  conscious  that  in  all 
Persian  scenery  there  is  a  sameness  in  certain  features,  though 
these  have  invariably  a  peculiar  beauty  of  form  and  coloring. 
The  mountains  are  never  out  of  sight,  and  in  January  there  is 
always  snow  in  the  landscape.  When  the  plains  and  hillsides 
are  visible,  there  are  always  the  browns  peculiar  to  Oriental 
scenery ;  and  when  there  is  a  village,  the  flat  roofs  of  mud, 
and  straight  walls  of  the  same  color  and  material,  give  an  un¬ 
mistakable  character.  At  Zergan  the  plain  was  so  narrow 
that  all  these  features  were  brought  in  unusually  close  con¬ 
tact.  At  sunset,  when  the  moollah  of  the  village,  too  poor 
to  have  a  minaret,  was  standing  on  the  roof  of  his  mosque, 
and  crying,  “  Allah-ah-ah-ah-u  akbar-ar-ar-ar  ”  in  the  tones  to 
W’hich  we  had  become  accustomed  at  night  and  morning,  I 
walked  for  a  long  time  on  the  roof  of  the  stables  (which  is, 
as  it  were,  the  terrace  of  the  bala-khanah)  enjoying  the  scene, 
watching  how  the  silence  of  the  plain  seemed  to  deepen  with 
the  lengthening  shadows,  and  the  rose  -  color  of  the  distant 
snow  turned  first  to  a  pale  gilding,  and  then  to  iron-gray, 
,  and  the  bell  of  a  mule  coming  to  rest  for  the  night  resounded 
for  miles  in  the  still,  clear  air,  given  over  by  the  parting  sun 
to  the  dominion  of  frost,  which  immediately  sealed  all  until 
the  morning. 


A  PEKSIAN  FUNERAL. 


339 


I  was  awaked  by  a  direful  wailing  of  many  voices,  and, 
hastily  turning  out  upon  the  roof,  saw  a  funeral  passing  from 
the  village  to  the  grave-yard  upon  the  plain.  In  Persia,  as  in 
Turkey,  great  haste  is  generally  made  in  burial ;  the  bearers 
hurry  along,  unwilling  to  keep  the  soul  from  rest  in  earth.  In 
this  case,  the  body  was  wrapped  or  swathed  in  white  linen, 
and  laid  on  a  bier,  the  mummy-like  form  of  the  corpse  being 
entirely  exposed.  In  front,  the  wallers,  professionals  proba¬ 
bly,  trotted  at  a  pace  a  little  faster  than  would  be  possible  had 
they  walked  at  their  utmost  speed ;  the  bearers,  of  whom  a 
relay  followed  the  body,  did  their  best  to  keep  up,  and  the 
succeeding  crowd  of  mourners  and  sympathizers  straggled 
onward  as  they  could. 

This  was  the  26th  of  January,  and  we  were  happy  in  the 
thought  that  we  were  about  to  rest  in  Shiraz  after  the  fa¬ 
tigue  of  traveling.  For  eighteen  nights,  from  Ispahan,  we  had 
endured  the  miseries  of  chapar-khanahs  and  caravanserais. 
With  the  exception  of  one  day’s  painful  rest  at  Yezdikhast, 
we  had  ridden,  on  an  average,  for  eight  hours  every  day;  and 
as  we  rode  up  and  down  the  snowy  hills  toward  Shiraz,  we 
longed  for  a  sight  of  the  famous  city  in  which  we  were  to  be 
for  some  time  the  guests  of  an  Englishman,  The  snow  was 
deep,  and  the  road  almost  the  worst  we  had  met  with.  Un¬ 
derneath  the  soft  snow  there  were  hidden  bowlders  of  every 
shape,  upon  which  our  horses  and  mules  stumbled  and  slip¬ 
ped.  In  places  where  the  sun  had  power,  the  hoofs  of  the  an¬ 
imals  were  covered  with  slush  at  every  footstep.  We  had 
not  gone  half-way  from  Zergan  to  Shiraz,  when  the  sun  dis¬ 
appeared  behind  thick  clouds,  and  the  magnificent  panorama 
was  closed  by  a  heavy  fall  of  snow. 

In  the  mountains,  slouching  through  the  snow,  we  met  two 
rather  large  parties  of  armed  men,  vdio  would  possibly  have 
shown  themselves  to  be  robbers  had  we  been  less  strono- • 
and  at  length,  in  a  hollow,  we  dismounted  at  a  ruined  cara- 


340 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


vanserai,  and  awaited  Kazem’s  preparation  of  a  stew.  The 
good  little  man  was  bringing  it  toward  where  I  sat,  almost 
shivering,  upon  the  frame-work  of  a  well,  near  to  my  wife, 
who  did  not  leave  the  shelter  of  her  takht-i-rawan,  when  his 
foot  slipped,  and  the  savory  mess  fell  into  a  hopeless  quag¬ 
mire  of  mud  and  snow.  We  had  to  put  up  with  less  com¬ 
forting  provision.  But  what  did  that  matter.  In  three  hours 
we  should  be  in  Shiraz.  We  mounted  again,  and  rode  up 
and  down  over  hills  of  which  we  could  not  see  the  end. 
Progress  became  very  difficult  on  account  of  the  snow,  which 
every  hour  fell  fast  and  faster.  I  saw  it  was  the  intention 
of  our  guard  to  creep  away  and  leave  us  to  walk  through  the 
storm.  Houssein  Khan  himself  set  the  example.  When  a 
projecting  rock  hid  him  from  my  sight,  he  pressed  his  horse 
onward,  and  w^as  soon  out  of  sight.  My  contempt  for  the 
whole  troo])  w’^as  too  great  to  permit  of  entreating  the  soldiers 
to  remain  and  trudge  slowly  through  the  snow  with  the  bag¬ 
gage  mules  and  the  takht-i-rawan.  Every  man  of  them  soon 
trotted  off,  and  we,  attended  only  by  our  muleteers  and  serv¬ 
ants,  moved  slowly  along,  the  whole  caravan  white  with  the 
falling  snow,  the  takht-i-raw^an  and  the  baggage  fringed  with 
icicles.  We  had  passed  the  last  summit,  and  were  descend¬ 
ing  from  the  path  of  Allahu  Akbar  in  a  gorge,  the  grandeur 
of  wffiich  was  perhaps  enhanced  by  the  severity  of  the  weath¬ 
er,  when  w^e  met  the  English  doctor,  Mr.  Odliug,  who  had 
kindly  invited  us  to  stay  at  his  house  in  Shiraz,  attended  by 
a  stalwart  Persian  groom.  Both  were  mounted  on  splendid 
horses,  and  well  armed.  The  doctor  wore  a  long  coat  of  En¬ 
glish  frieze,  and  riding-boots;  a  young  man  wdth  the  strong, 
quiet  manner  characteristic  of  Yorkshiremen  —  a  man  of 
whom,  at  first  sight,  one  would  say  that  he  was  well  chosen 
for  the  service  in  which  he  had  engaged.  He  had  some  diffi¬ 
culty  in  reining  his  fiery  horse  to  our  caravan  pace.  Worse 
traveling  I  had  never  known.  Snow  and  stones,  and  mud 


SNOW-STOEM  AT  SHIEAZ. 


341 


beneath,  and  above  a  cold,  blinding  drift  and  fall,  which 
froze  where  the  lingering  warmth  of  the  body  did  not  melt 
it  into  greater  discomfort. 

From  the  high  hills  by  which  Shiraz  is  approached  by  way 
of  Ispahan,  a  broad  path  leads  down  to  the  city.  In  other 
places  it  would  be  called  a  road ;  but  where  wheels  are  never 
seen,  such  a  word  might  be  misleading.  Had  the  day  been 
clear,  we  should  have  enjoyed  from  these  hills  one  of  the 
finest  views  in  Persia.  Close  beside  the  path,  as  it  slopes 
into  Shiraz,  is  a  grave-yard,  with  a  garden  attached — an  in¬ 
closure  in  which  dark-green  cypress-trees  rise  high  above  the 
walls.  In  this  place  rest  the  remains  of  the  poet  Hafiz;  and 
about  a  mile  farther  to  the  left,  in  another  inclosure  of  the 
same  character,  Sa’di  was  buried.  Upon  the  right  of  the 
road  is  a  garden,  also  set  with  cypress-trees,  with  a  pavilion 
or  palace  at  the  higher  end  —  a  very  favorite  resort  of  the 
Shirazees,  who  carry  their  tea-pots  there,  and,  sitting  on  their 
heels  upon  the  open  floor  of  the  pavilion,  enjoy  the  view  over 
the  flat  roofs,  the  blue  domes,  the  minarets,  and  the  green 
“  chenar,”  or  plane-trees,  of  the  city,  bounded  by  the  opposite 
mountains  rising  high  above  Shiraz,  and  inclosing  that  which 
they  fondly  believe  to  be  the  hub  ”  of  the  universe.  This 
quotation  is  the  more  permissible,  because  there  is  some  par¬ 
allelism  between  the  reputation  of  Boston  in  the  United  States 
and  that  of  Shiraz  among  the  Persians.  Shiraz  is  pre-eminent¬ 
ly  the  literary  city  of  Persia. 

But  in  the  snow-storm  we  had  no  disposition  to  turn 
to  right  or  left,  even  to  do  homage  at  the  grave  of  Hafiz. 
Straight  on  we  pushed,  until,  at  a  council  including  the  doc¬ 
tor  and  the  charvodar,  it  was  decided  that  the  takht-i-rawan, 
three  feet  wide,  seven  feet  high,  and  in  length  perhaps  not 
more  than  that  of  three  mules,  could  not  pass  through  the 
town,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  ford  the  river,  and 
enter  the  walls  as  near  as  possible  to  Mr.  Odling’s  house. 


342 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN-. 


I  shall  never  forget  the  mud  inside  the  gate  of  Shiraz.  It 
was  'about  a  foot  deep,  and  spread  from  wall  to  wall.  A 
labyrinth  of  walls  and  narrow  ways  rendered  the  farther 
progress  of  the  takht-i-rawan  impossible.  We  had,  at  the 
entry  of  this  famous  city,  to  place  my  wife  on  a  led  horse, 
and  to  have  the  takht-i-rawan  carried  in  the  hands  of  men, 
because,  with  the  more  extended  length  of  harnessed  mules, 
it  could  not  follow  the  windings  of  the  miserable  streets  of 
Shiraz.  That  operation  of  “  swapping  horses  while  crossing 
a  stream,”  which  Abraham  Lincoln  condemned  as  the  height 
of  impolicy,  is  as  nothing  compared  with  the  manceuvre  we 
were  forced  to  effect  in  this  sea  of  mud.  At  last  we  arrived 
at  a  brick  wall,  in  which  was  the  door  of  Mr.  Odling’s  house. 
For  the  kindness  and  ability  with  which  he  conducted,  under 
the  double  oppression  of  a  snow-storm  and  of  a  Shiraz  crowd, 
the  difficult  arrival  of  ourselves  and  our  train,  I  have  an  un¬ 
fading  recollection  of  esteem  and  obligation. 

There  is  no  one  of  the  Englishmen  resident  in  Persia — and 
we  became  acquainted  with  all — of  whom  we  retain  a  higher 
opinion  than  of  Mr.  Odling,  partly  because  no  one  is  more 
careful  to  vindicate  the  superior  characteristics  of  his  coun¬ 
try,  by  the  continued  observance  of  them  in  a  land  where, 
as  a  rule,  right  appears  to  have  no  significance  but  that  of 
might.  His  home  in  Shiraz  is  a  good  Persian  house  of  the 
usual*  style;  mud -built,  of  course,  with  no  view  from  with¬ 
in  of  the  external  world,  and  with  rooms  arranged  upon 
paved  terraces  around  two  small  quadrangles,  in  which  there 
are  the  usual  tank  and  bit  of  garden  —  the  latter,  in  his 
case,  set  with  orange-trees.  The  walls  of  the  rooms  in  a 
house  of  this  sort  are  finished  with  fine  plaster,  whitened, 
and  paneled  with  recesses  in  which  pictures,  books,  or  china 
may  be  placed.  The  fire-place  is  always  the  same — a  hole  in 
the  wall  beneath  a  flue;  and  the  floors,  of  course,  are  more  or 
less  covered  with  caiqDets,  those  best  productions  of  Persian 


PRESENT  EROM  THE  EIRMAN  EIRMA. 


343 


industry,  with  their  unrivaled  blending  of  soft  colors.  When 
we  arrived,  and  indeed  during  the  few  days  of  our  stay  in 
Shiraz,  the  quadrangles  of  Mr.  Odling’s  house  were  heaped 
high  with  snow,  including  a  large  quantity  thrown  from  the 
roofs.  It  is  obviously  unwise  to  allow  a  great  weight  of 
snow  to  melt  on  the  mud-roof  of  a  Persian  house.  Careful 
housekeepers  always  remove  it  quickly ;  and  upon  the  roof 
of  every  Persian  house  in  which  there  is  pretension  to  good 
management,  a  cylinder  of  stone  is  always  kept,  to  solidify 
the  roof  by  rolling  after  wet  weather,  and  upon  the  occasional 
application  of  a  new  layer  of  wet  clay. 

Houssein  Khan  had  orders  to  report  our  safe  arrival  to  the 
Firman  Firma  (the  Decreer  of  Decrees),  and  I  sent  at  the 
same  time  by  a  servant  a  letter  of  thanks  to  his  excellency, 
together  with  a  vizierial  letter  from  his  brother,  Mirza  Hous¬ 
sein  Khan,  the  Sipar  Salar.  Early  the  next  morning  the  in¬ 
evitable  present  arrived.  This  time  it  was  much  bigger, 
more  imposing  in  its  arrival,  and  more  useless,  in  fact,  than 
before.  Preceded  by  the  Firman  Firma’s  major-domo,  whose 
every  stride  was  marked  with  a  movement  of  his  silver- 
mounted  wand,  walked  several  servants,  followed  by  negroes 
bearing  the  present  on  their  heads  in  huge  trays  of  metal 
each  a  yard  in  diameter.  Three  were  piled  with  oranges, 
and  in  others  there  were  arranged  ten  large  china  plates  full 
of  sweetmeats.  Shortly  after  all  this  was  delivered,  a  hand¬ 
some  young  Persian,  the  governor’s  aid-de-camp,  the  nazir” 
of  his  excellency’s  household,  arrived  with  the  following  let¬ 
ter  from  the  Firman  Firma,  which  is  not  only  in  the  French 
language,  but  is  without  the  slightest  touch  of  Persian  manner: 

‘‘Monsieur,  —  J’ai  eu  le  plaisir  do  recevoir  la  lettre  de 
S.  A.,  et  je  m’empresso  do  vous  reiterer  mes  sinceres  felici¬ 
tations  pour  votre  arrivee  dans  cette  ville, 

“  Demain,  vendredi  a  midi,  je  vous  attends  avec  le  plus 


344 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


grand  plaisir.  En  attendant  je  vous  prie  de  vouloir  bien 
presenter  mes  respectueux  horamages  a  Madame  Arnold.  Je 
m’imagine  des  fatigues  qu’elles  a  dli  endurer  pendant  un  voy¬ 
age  en  ces  froids. 

Je  vous  prie  d’agreer  I’assurance  de  ma  parfaite  conside¬ 
ration.  Yahia.” 

One  may  live  for  months  in  a  Persian  house  without  ac¬ 
quiring  any  knowledge  whatever  of  that  which  is  to  be  seen 
outside  the  door.  Upon  our  arrival  in  Shiraz,  I  had  been  so 
confused  by  the  falling  snow  and  the  mingled  noise  of  por¬ 
ters,  muleteers,  soldiers,  and  servants,  that  I  had  taken  no 
notice  of  the  surroundings.  In  the  bustle  of  arrival,  I  had 
not  even  observed  the  mud-hut  in  which  a  dervish  lived  close 
by  Mr.  Odling’s  door.  On  coming  out,  this  holy  man  took 
care  there  should  be  no  such  omission,  lifting  his  voice  with 
ever-increasing  loudness  until  he  attained  his  object.  It  is  a 
common  circumstance  in  Persian  towns  for  one  of  these  relig¬ 
ious  mendicants  to  plant  himself  near  the  gate  of  any  house 
of  unusual  importance.  Of  course,  the  residence  of  a  giaour 
was  not  the  cause  of  this  particular  dervish’s  presence.  A 
Moslem  house  joined  the  residence  of  the  Christian  doctor, 
and  one  of  the  city  gates  lay  close  at  hand.  The  situation 
%vas  therefore  a  good  one  for  a  religious  beggar ;  and  a  der¬ 
vish,  though  upon  one  occasion  he  will  not  be  sparing  of  his 
curses,  which  are  always  the  only  words  fit  in  his  mouth  for 
Christians,  has,  as  a  rule,  no  objection  whatever  to  money 
from  the  hands  of  unbelievers.  The  dervish  at  the  door  is 
regarded  by  Persians  as  a  nuisance  which  must  not  be  rudely 
expelled ;  much  as  an  English  squire  or  farmer  of  the  olden 
fashion  looks  upon  the  summer  birds  which  build  their  mud¬ 
dy  nests  in  the  angles  of  his  porch,  with  a  lingering  belief  in 
his  mind  that,  after  all,  there  is  perhaps  something  in  the  old 
doggerel,  which  says. 


MEIDAN-  OF  SHIEAZ. 


345 


“Martens  and  swallows  are  God’s  best  fellows.” 

For  my  own  part,  I  would  far  rather  hear  the  twitter  of  the 
swallow,  as  a  iiiorniDg  call,  than  the  “Allahu  akbar  ”  of  a  self- 
imposed  dervish  at  my  gate.  But,  then,  there  is  no  account¬ 
ing  for  taste ;  and  the  dervishes  find  that  a  lazy  life,  with  a 
noisy  devotion  to  religion,  insures  an  easy  livelihood. 

Twenty  steps  past  the  dervish  over  the  frozen  slush,  we 
arrived  in  the  smaller  “  place,”  or  meidan,  of  Shiraz.  On 
one  side  stands  the  governor’s  palace ;  the  other  three  sides 
are  occupied  with  the  blank  walls  of  houses  and  yards.  Pav¬ 
ing  has  never  been  attempted  in  Shiraz,  and  the  meidan  is  in 
hills  and  holes,  according  as  the  traffic  and  the  exigencies  of 
the  people,  in  the  disposition  of  rubbish,  have  made*  it.  There 
are  two  or  three  miserable  trees  before  the  governor’s  palace, 
which  was  apparently  at  one  time  fenced  from  the  open  space 
by  a  wall  of  mud -bricks,  with  stone  piers.  But  the  stones 
have  long  since  been  cast  down ;  they  lie  broken  on  the 
ground,  with  much  debris  from  the  wall.  The  front  of  the 
palace  has  no  architectural  pretensions  :  under  a  heavy  chalet 
roof  there  are  windows,  one  story  above  the  ground -floor ; 
but  the  windows  and  frames  are  broken,  the  mud  plaster  has 
fallen  off  in  large  patches  from  the  wall,  and  on  every  side  of 
this  meidan  the  walls  are  in  the  same  condition.  Over  all 
there  is  the  usual  aspect  of  ruin  and  poverty,  so  general 
throughout  Persia. 

Under  the  gate-way  lounged  some  of  the  Firman  Firma’s 
servants  and  soldiers.  On  seeing  us,  they  led  the  way  to  a 
brick  staircase,  with  steps  inconveniently  high,  to  a  part  of 
the  j)alace  at  some  distance  from  the  meidan,  pulled  aside  the 
hangings  of  Manchester  cotton,  stamped  with  Oriental  pat¬ 
tern,  from  a  door-way,  and  we  were  in  the  presence  of  His 
Excellency  Yaliia  Khan,  brother  of  the  prime  minister,  and 
husband  of  a  sister  of  His  Majesty  the  Shah.  Yahia,  com¬ 
monly  known  as  ‘‘the  Firman  Firma,”  is  also  Motemid-el- 

15* 


346 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


Mulk ;  and  the  title  of  the  princess,  his  wife,  is  Izzet-ud-Dow- 
leh.  Her  highness  was  the  widow  of  the  murdered  Ameer- 
el-Nizam.  The  Shah’s  repentance  for  the  crime  of  consent¬ 
ing  to  the  death  of  the  Ameer  led  his  majesty,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  betroth  his  two  young  daughters  to  the  sons  of  the 
Ameer;  and  the  same  feeling  induced  him  to  bestow  the 
princess,  whom  he  had  made  a  widow,  upon  the  Motemid-el- 
Mulk,  whom  he  afterward  styled  “  Firman  Firma.” 

Yahia  Khan  is  the  most  accomplished  and  Europeanized 
man  in  Persia.  His  manners  are  charming,  and  there  can  be 
but  very  few  Asiatics  who  have  such  easy  command  of  the 
French  language.  If  he  were  a  man  of  firmness,  vigor,  of 
strong  and  lofty  ambition,  Yahia  Khan  might  do  great  things 
for  his  country.  But  one  sees  at  a  glance  that,  though  supe¬ 
rior  to  his  brother  in  culture,  and  probably  in  moral  worth, 
he  has  not  the  energy,  the  boldness,  or  the  power  of  intrigue 
of  Mirza  Houssein  Khan.  He  wore  a  military  undress  of 
European  cut — the  only  governor  who  had  not  received  me 
with  all  the  jewels  and  ornaments  at  command.  In  this  and 
many  other  points,  the  superior  civilization  of  Yahia  Khan 
was  evident.  His  apartment  was  not  unlike  a  barrack-room 
in  officer’s  quarters :  the  walls  white  and  bare,  the  floor  cov¬ 
ered  with  matting,  with  two  carpets  laid  upon  it.  Chairs  are 
always  scarce  in  Persia ;  there  were  only  three  in  the  Firman 
Firma’s  room — two  (for  Mr.  Odling  and  myself)  besides  the 
arm-chair  of  the  governor,  which  he  compelled  me  to  accept. 
The  British  agent,  a  native  of  rank,  the  Mirza  Hassan  Ali 
Khan,  a  man  of  very  agreeable  manners  and  of  much  culti¬ 
vation,  arrived  as  soon  as  we  were  seated;  and,  gracefully 
accepting  Yahia  Khan’s  apology  for  the  absence  of  a  fourth 
chair,  took  his  seat,  in  probably  greater  comfort,  upon  the 
floor.  All  the  weakness  of  the  Firman  Firma’s  amiable  char¬ 
acter  appeared  in  his  conversation.  Of  the  ills  in  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  Persia  he  was  in  no  way  ignorant ;  of  amendment  he 


POYEETY  OF  PERSIA. 


347 


had  nothing  to  say.  I  did  not  expect  much  in  that  direction 
from  a  man  whoj  while  drawing  a  splendid  income  from  the 
province,  was  content  to  leave  the  front  of  his  house  a  heap 
of  ruins.  It  is  this  supine  submission  to  the  process  of  decay 
which  is  the  bane  of  Persia.  Irom  highest  to  lowest,  every 
thing  is  administered  as  if  the  only  object  of  those  in  power 
were  to  seek  their  own  momentary  advantage;  as  if,  in  fact, 
the  Persians  held  the  country  as  yearly  tenants,  and  nothing 
more.  TV^hen  Sir  Lewis  Pelly  was  (in  his  capacity  as  polit¬ 
ical  resident  at  Bushire)  in  official  communication  with  the 
Government  of  Shiraz,  he  showed,  his  true  appreciation  of 
the  political  system  of  Persia  in  a  report  to  the  Bombay  Gov¬ 
ernment  :  “A  ,”  he  wrote,  gives  to  his  subfarmers  permis¬ 
sion  to  collect  the  revenue  by  force :  this  is  done.  'Next  year 
some  of  the  peasants  are  fled;  some  of  the  land  is  lying  waste. 
The  countiy,  in  brief,  is  revenued  as  if  the  Government  were 
to  end  with  the  expiry  of  the  governor’s  lease.” 

The  Firman  Firma  had  but  one  word  of  explanation  con¬ 
cerning  the  condition  of  Persia :  the  country,  he  said,  was 

very,  very  poor.”  There  had  been  a  few  robberies  lately  in 
his  province,  but  he  believed  it  was  generally  quiet  (he  has 
since  been  recalled,  owing  to  his  inability  to  control  the  tur¬ 
bulent  people  of  Shiraz) ;  he  should  provide  us  with  an  armed 
escort  from  Shiraz  to  Bushire,  which  he  had  intended  should 
be  ten  men  and  an  officer ;  but  as  I  preferred  to  have  only 
two  sowars,  he  would  give  orders  that  but  two,  and  those  the 
most  trustworthy,  should  accompany  our  caravan.  He  pro¬ 
vided  the  customary  entertainment  of  tobacco,  tea,  and  coffee, 
and  was  most  polite  in  desiring  to  do  any  thing  which  could 
conduce  to  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  our  stay  in  Shiraz. 

I  had  one  favor  to  ask — a  very  small  one — but  I  thought  it 
would  be  more  proper  not  to  put  it  to  him  personally;  and 
on  leaving  I  directed  the  attention  of  his  “nazir,”  or  control¬ 
ler,  the  same  agreeable  young  man  who  had  brought  the  Fir- 


348 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


man  Firma’s  letter  soon  after  our  arrival  to  the  large  tent 
adjoining  the  palace,  in  which  during  the  first  days  of  the 
Mohurrem,  then  just  commenced,  there  was  acted  the  repre¬ 
sentation  of  the  closing  period  of  the  life  of  Houssein,  the 
grandson  of  Mohammed.  I  was  aware  that  this  taziah,  or 
theatre,  was  visited  daily  by  the  Firman  Firma  and  the  la¬ 
dies  of  his  anderoon,  as  well  as  by  hundreds  of  the  people  of 
Shiraz;  and  I  requested,  if  his  excellency  thought  my  visit 
would  not  be  displeasing  to  the  people,  and  therefore  a  pos¬ 
sible  embarrassment  to  himself,  that  he  would  kindly  make 
provision  for  our  admittance  to  witness  the  performance. 

For  days  this  strange  passion-play  ”  of  the  last  days  of 
Houssein  had  been  going  on,  and  for  days  it  would  continue. 
On  the  tenth  day,  the  tearful  tragedy  of  his  death  at  Kerbela, 
with  that  of  seventy  of  his  followers,  would  be  represented. 
The  canvas  of  the  large  tent  had,  I  should  think,  been  pur¬ 
chased  in  England  or  in  India.  On  three  sides  the  theatre 
was  closed  in  by  the  walls  of  the  precinct  of  the  palace.  Upon 
the  top  of  these,  and  covering  the  fourth  side,  the  canvas  was 
arranged.  The  whole  of  the  centre  of  the  tent  appeared  to 
be  the  stage.  It  seemed  that  no  scenery  was  introduced,  but 
the  events  were  made  life-like  by  the  employment  of  soldiers, 
camels,  horses,  and  mules,  of  which  there  were  generally  some 
standing  outside  the  theatre.  These  were,  for  the  most  part, 
splendidly  equipped,  and  lent  for  this  sacred  occasion  by  the 
governor  and  great  people  of  Shiraz. 

The  young  nazir  called  at  Mr.  Odling’s  the  next  evening, 
and,  expressing  the  great  regret  of  his  excellency,  said  that 
the  Firman  Firma  thought  it  better  we  should  not  visit  the 
theatre.  The  raooHahs  would  certainly  object,  and  he  feared 
there  might  be  a  disturbance.  We  therefore  failed  in  this  re¬ 
spect  in  Shiraz,  as  we  had  failed  in  Teheran. 

The  Persians  are  so  strict  in  excluding  Christians  from 
their  religious  places  that  we  had  some  doubt  if  we  should 


TOMB  OP  HAFIZ. 


349 


be  able  to  enter  the  cemetery  in  wbich  is  placed  the  tomb  of 
Hafiz.  We  rode  in  single  file  through  the  crowded  bazaars, 
and  soon  gained  the  broad  way  by  which  we  had  entered  Shi¬ 
raz.  Leaving  our  horses  outside  the  gate,  we  entered  the 
mud-built  gate  and  walked  among  the  dark  cypresses.  An 
open  mosque  stood  at  the  higher  end  of  the  grave-yard,  which 
was  full  of  tombs,  and  at  the  other  end  there  were  charming 
views,  through  the  cypress  groves,  of  the  blue  sky  and  the 
snow-covered  mountains  which  lay  on  the  farther  side  of  the 
valley  in  which  is  placed  the  city  of  Shiraz.  There  were  two 
moollahs  near  the  mosque,  wearing  white  turbans  and  long 
robes  of  green.  One  of  these  ran  toward  us,  but  not  with  the 
intention  of  objecting  to  our  entry.  Mr.  Odling’s  dog  had, 
unobserved,  left  the  grooms,  and  followed  us  into  the  ceme¬ 
tery.  It  was  against  the  presence  of  the  Christian  “dog” 
that  the  demonstration  of  the  moollahs  was  made ;  and,  though 
we  aided  in  expelling  our  dog,  we  thought  it  an  affectation  of 
religious  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  guardian  priest,  inasmuch  as 
all  the  while  there  stood  near  the  quiescent  moollah  a  Persian, 
and,  by  hypothesis,  a  Moslem  dog,  which  appeared  quite  at 
home,  and  welcome,  in  this  pleasant  and  most  picturesque  re¬ 
treat. 

Our  offending  dog  having  been  thrust  outside,  we  were  at 
liberty  to  look  at  the  grave  of  Hafiz,  which  is  placed  about 
the  middle  of  the  square  inclosure.  The  ground  is  thickly 
beset  with  tombs,  mostly  flat,  like  that  of  Hafiz,  but  none  so 
exquisitely  carved,  nor,  like  his,  of  marble.  Hafiz’s  tomb  is 
covered  with  a  single  block  of  the  beautiful  marble  of  Yezd, 
of  which  about  eighteen  inches  appear  above  the  ground. 
The  upper  surface  of  this  fine  slab  is  nine  feet  long  by  two 
feet  nine  inches  in  width.  In  the  centre  there  is  an  ode,  writ¬ 
ten  by  Hafiz  himself,  of  which  the  following  is  a  translation, 
founded  upon  that  made  by  Mr.  Binning: 

“Proclaim  the  good  tidings  of  oneness  with  thee,  that 


350 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


above  this  transitory  life  I  may  be  lifted  immortal.  A  bird 
of  Paradise  am  I ;  my  heart’s  desire  is  to  fly  to  thee,  away 
from  the  traps  and  temptations  of  this  world.  If  thou  shouldst 
deign,  in  thy  great  mercy,  to  call  me  thy  faithful  servant,  how 
joyously  would  I  take  leave  of  the  mean  concerns  and  miser¬ 
able  vanities  of  this  transitory  existence ! 

“  O  Allah !  from  the  bright  vapors  which  surround  thy 
throncj  pour  out  upon  me  a  flood  of  the  graces  of  thy  good¬ 
ness,  before  I  am  borne  away  like  dust  before  the  wind. 

Come  hither,  O  my  loved  ones,  to  my  tomb,  with  wine 
and  music ;  and  possibly,  at  the  sound  of  your  cheerful  voices 
and  the  music  of  your  melody,  I  may  cease  from  slumber,  and 
rise  from  among  the  dead. 

“  Though  I  am  aged  and  weak,  do  thou,  if  it  be  but  for  one 
night,  fold  me  in  thine  embrace,  so  that  on  the  morrow  I 
shall  arise  from  thy  side  re-endowed  with  the  bloom  and  the 
vigor  of  youth. 

“  Come  forth  and  show  thyself,  O  type  of  all  good ;  mani¬ 
fest  thyself,  so  that  Hafiz  may  bid  adieu  to  this  life  and  to 
this  lower  world.” 

Raised  in  low-relief,  this  ode,  in  the  beautiful  letters  of  the 
Persian  alphabet,  occupies  the  centre  only  of  the  slab.  Round 
the  edges,  in  a  band  about  four  inches  deep,  appears  another 
ode,  which  has  been  rendered  into  the  following  words  of  En¬ 
glish  : 

‘‘  O  my  soul,  be  thou  the  servant  of  Allah,  the  king  of  the 
universe,  and  be  thyself  a  king.  Seek  to  abide  forever  under 
the  care  and  protection  of  Allah. 

“  The  enemies  of  the  true  faith  may  be  many  ;  but  a  thou¬ 
sand  of  them  shall  count  as  naught,  and  they  shall  be  as  nothing, 
even  though  hosts  of  such  unbelievers  should  cover  the  hills. 

“  To-day,  O  Ali,  we  live  by  thy  power.  By  the  souls  of  the 
holy  Imams,  be  thou  a  witness  on  our  behalf  in  the  world  to 
come. 


THE  NEW  GAEDEN. 


351 


He  wlio  bears  not  true  love  toward  All  is  no  better  than 
an  infidel,  even  though  he  be  most  devoted  in  his  prayers  and 
the  most  learned  in  the  mosque. 

“  Go,  kiss  the  sepulchre  of  the  eighth  Imam,  the  prince  of 
the  faith,  Reza,  and  stand  expectant  on  that  sacred  threshold. 

“O  Hafiz!  choose  thou  the  service  of  Allah,  the  all-pow¬ 
erful,  and  go  forward  boldly  in  the  right  path.” 

The  tomb  is  probably  not  yet  two  hundred  years  old. 
From  this  interesting  place  we  passed  to  the  Hew  Garden,” 
which  is  not  far  distant,  and  commands  the  same  charm¬ 
ing  views  of  the  valley  and  mountains  of  Shiraz.  There  we 
met  with  a  party  of  softas,”  theological  students,  who  had 
brought  a  samovar  and  charcoal,  cups  and  saucers,  sugar  and 
tea,  from  the  town.  They  invited  us  to  join  them  in  a  cup  of 
tea,  which  we  all  enjoyed  upon  the  ruined  floor  of  an  ‘‘ima- 
ret,”  a  palatial  pavilion  which  had  been  gay  and  grand  in  the 
days  of  Shah  Abbas. 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Literature  of  Persia. — Hafiz  and  Sa’di. — Contemporary  of  Dante. — Mr. 
Bicknell’s  Translation  of  Hafiz. — Consulting  Hafiz  as  an  Oracle. — Nadir 
Shah  and  Hafiz. — Hafiz’s  Fragments. — “  Tetrastichs  ”  of  Hafiz. — Sa’di’s 
“Bustan.” — Sa’di’s  “Gulistan.” — Extracts  from  “Gulistan.” — Sa’di’s 
Wit  and  Wisdom. — Gardens  of  Shiraz. — Slaves  and  Slave-brokers. — En¬ 
glish  Surgeons  and  Persian  Patients. — Influence  of  Russia. — Mr.  Thom¬ 
son 'and  Mr.  Bruce. — Indo-Persian  Telegraph. — Major  Champain’s  Re¬ 
ports. — A  View  of  the  Neighbors. — Persian  Homes. — Government  of  Shi¬ 
raz. — Eeliats  in  Ears. — Attack  on  a  Caravan. — A  Vengeful  Government. 
— Cruel  Execution  of  Robbers. — Firman  Firma  superseded. — Taxation 
in  Persia. — The  Shah  and  Shii’az. 

The  literature  of  Persia  is  not  extensive,  and  that  which 
exists  is  little  known  outside  the  empire.  But  in  any  survey 
of  Persia,  however  hasty,  some  notice  must  be  taken  of  the 
works  of  the  two  great  poets,  Hafiz  and  Sa’di,  both  natives  of 
Shiraz.  There  is,  no  doubt,  immense  difficulty  in  translating 
their  writings.  Hafiz,  the  later  of  the  two,  has  been  dead 
nearly  five  hundred  years.  Imagine  a  Persian  with  a  smat¬ 
tering  of  English  (Europeans  very  rarely  acquire  a  thorough¬ 
ly  competent  knowledge  of  the  Persian  language)  as  it  is 
spoken  to-day  set  to  translate  Chaucer  into  Persian  !  Dante 
was  contemporary  with  Hafiz.  Fancy  the  difficulties  which 
the  writings  of  Dante  would  present  to  a  Persian  w'ho  had 
but  an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  colloquial  Italian  of 
the  nineteenth  century ! 

For  my  own  part,  I  have  no  confidence  that  in  such  trans¬ 
lations  as  have  been  made  we  obtain  a  thorough  understand¬ 
ing  of  the  poet’s  meaning.  But  we  should  not  therefore  re¬ 
ject  them.  Mr.  Herman  Bicknell  has  made  a  very  praise- 


HAFIZ  AND  SA’dI. 


353 


worthy  attempt  to  render  the  poetry  of  Hafiz  into  English 
verse.*  This  is  not  the  place  to  express  my  opinion  of  his 
success.  I  have  read  the  greater  part  of  his  work,  and  I  am 
not  sure  if  the  difliculty  inseparable  from  the  undertaking  is 
not  injuriously,  and  needlessly,  increased  by  fitting  the  trans¬ 
lation  into  rhymes.  Mr.  Bicknell  had  undoubtedly  a  rare  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  manners  and  customs,  the  thoughts  and 
fancies,  of  the  East;  and  it  may  be  justly  said  that  any  com¬ 
parison  of  the  difliculty  of  translating  Hafiz  truly  into  English 
with  that  of  rendering  Chaucer  and  Dante  into  Persian  is 
not  strictly  fair,  because  the  East  is  not  as  the  West.  The 
changes  which  have  taken  place  in  Persian  and  in  Persia 
since  the  time  of  Sa’di  and  of  Hafiz  would  seem  as  nothing 
when  placed  beside  those  which  divide  England  and  Italy  of 
the  fourteenth  century  from  those  same  countries  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century. 

There  can  be  no  question  of  the  high  repute  in  which  Hafiz 
has  been,  and  is  still,  held  by  his  countrymen.  He  died  at 
Shiraz  in  1388.  Mr.  Bicknell,  in  the  introduction  to  his  work, 
alludes  to  a  custom  of  which  I  have  often  heard  in  Persia,  and 
which,  I  believe,  is  still  practiced  in  Shiraz.  He  says:  The 
•  admiration  for  the  Odes  had  increased  to  so  great  an  extent 
before  the  death  of  Hafiz  in  the  year  of  the  Hijrah  79 1  (a.d. 
1388),  that  it  became  customary  to  consult  them  to  discover 
future  events  ;  and  this  practice  is  still  continued  in  the  East 
in  various  ways.  One  method,  after  breathing  over  the  vol¬ 
ume,  is  to  utter  an  invocation  such  as  the  following : 

“  ‘  O  Hafiz  of  Shiraz,  impart 

Foreknowledge  to  my  anxious  heart  I’ 

The  book  is  then  opened  at  hazard,  and  the  first  couplet  which 


*  “Hafiz  of  Shiraz :  Seleetions  from  his  Poems.”  Translated  from  tlie 
Persian  by  Herman  Bicknell.  London  :  Triibner  &  Co. 


354 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


meets  the  eye  is  taken  as  an  answer  to  the  question  of  him 
who  consults  the  oracle. 

“  When  Nadir  Shah  was  engaged  in  hostile  operations 
against  the  Afghans,  it  is  related  that  he  performed  a  ‘  ziya- 
rat,’  or  pious  visit,  to  the  tomb  of  the  poet,  and  had  recourse 
to  the  Divan  to  know  whether  it  would  be  expedient  to  con¬ 
tinue  the  war.  The  couplet  lighted  on  was  the  following : 

“  ‘  O  Hafiz,  by  thy  dulcet  song,  Irak  and  Ears  are  raptured  ; 

Now  haste,  that  Baghdad  and  Tabriz  may  in  their  turn  be  captured !’ 

Such  an  omen  was,  of  course,  hailed  as  auspicious.  Baghdad 
and  Tabriz  were  accordingly  attacked,  and  rescued  from  the 
Turks.  On  account  of  the  supposed  heterodoxy  of  certain 
passages  in  the  Divan,  difficulties  were  raised  as  to  the  inter¬ 
ment  of  Hafiz  with  the  rites  of  religion.  The  poetic  oracle, 
however,  being  consulted,  all  doubts  were  set  at  rest  by  the 
following  couplet : 

“  ‘Wish  not  to  turn  thy  foot  away  from  Hafiz  on  his  bier: 

He  shall  ascend  to  Paradise,  though  steeped  in  sin  while  here.’  ” 

The  following  is  Mr.  Bicknell’s  translation  of  one  of  the 
Odes  of  Hafiz : 

“Thou  whose  features,  clearly  beaming,  make  the  moon  of  Beauty  bright, 
Thou  whose  chin  contains  a  well-pit  which  to  Loveliness  gives  light. 

“  When,  O  Lord !  shall  kindly  Fortune,  sating  my  ambition,  pair 
This,  my  heart  of  tranquil  nature,  and  thy  wild  and  ruffled  hair  ? 

’“Pining  for  thy  sight,  my  spirit,  trembling  on  my  lip,  doth  wait, 

Forth  to  speed  it,  back  to  lead  it,  speak  the  sentence  of  its  fate. 

“Pass  me,  with  thy  skirt  uplifted,  from  the  dusty,  bloody  ground: 

Many  who  have  been  thy  victims,  dead  upon  this  path  are  found. 

“How  this  heart  is  anguish- wasted,  let  my  heart’s  possessor  know: 
Friends,  your  souls  and  mine  contemplate,  equal  by  their  common  woe. 


HAFIz’s  “  FRAGMENTS  ”  AND  “  TETRASTICHS.”  355 

“  Aught  of  good  accrues  to  no  one  witched  by  thy  narcissus  eye  : 

Ne’er  let  braggarts  vaunt  their  virtue,  if  thy  drunken  orbs  are  nigli. 

“Soon  my  Fortune,  sunk  in  slumber,  shall  her  limbs  with  vigor  brace  ; 
Dashed  upon  her  eyes  is  water  sprinkled  by  thy  shining  fece. 

“  Gather  from  thy  cheek  a  posy ;  speed  it  by  the  flying  East ; 

Sent  be  perfume  to  refresh  me,  from  thy  garden’s  dust  at  least. 

“Hafiz  offers  a  petition  :  listen,  and  ‘Amen’  reply; 

On  thy  sugar-dropping  rubies  let  me  for  life’s  food  rely. 

“  Many  a  year  live  on  and  prosper,  Sakis  of  the  court  of  Jam, 

E’en  though  I,  to  fill  my  wine-cup,  never  to  your  circle  come. 

“  East  wind,  when  to  Yazd  thou  wingest,  say  thou  to  its  sons  from  me, 
May  the  head  of  every  ingrate,  ball-like  ’neath  your  mall-bat  be  I 

“  What  though  from  your  dais  distant,  near  it  by  my  wish  I  seem ; 
Homage  to  your  king  I  render,  and  I  make  your  praise  my  theme. 

“  Shah  of  shahs,  of  lofty  planet, 

Grant  for  God  what  I  implore ; 

Let  me,  as  the  sky  above  thee, 

Kiss  the  dust  w’hich  strews  thy  floor.” 

From  among  the  “Fragments”  which  Mr.  Bicknell’s  vol- 
ume  contains  I  have  taken  this : 

“  Oh  Shah,  an  envoy  came  from  Heaven,  of  huri  aspect  fair, 

Rizvan-like  in  his  majesty,  of  Salsabil-like  hair, 

“Of  language  sound  in  sense,  and  sweet,  symmetrical,  refined, 

Both  fair  and  slight,  of  virgin  mien,  and  unto  jest  inclined. 

“  I  said :  ‘  To  this  retreat  of  mine  what  cause  has  made  thee  wing  ?’ 

He  answered  :  ‘For  the  Shah  I  come,  that  angel-minded  king.’ 

“  Of  me,  0  Shah,  for  poor  am  I,  that  youth  has  weary  groivn  ; 

To  gratify  his  heart’s  desire,  accept  him  for  thine  own.” 

The  key  to  this  poem  is  contained  in  a  note  which  informs 
ns  that  the  envoy  ”  is  the  genius  of  Hafiz,  who,  in  the  last 


356 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAK. 


couplet,  is  soliciting  the  imperial  patronage.  I  will  make  one 
more  extract  from  the  same  work,  that  of  the  following  lines, 
which  are  placed  with  the  Tetrastichs  ”  of  Hafiz : 


’Tis  good  to  have 
’Tis  good  to  have 


“Pure  wine  beside  a  brook 
Eelease  from  sorrow’s  nook 
Life  lasts  ten  days,  as  doth  the  rose’s  time ; 
A  smiling,  beaming  look 


’Tis  good  to  have. 


Without  in  the  least  disparaging  Mr.  BicknelFs  work, 
which  I  am  not  competent  to  criticise  fully,  I  must  say  he 
has  not  led  me  to  abandon  the  opinion  that  there  is  a  need¬ 
less  loss  of  Persian  aroma  in  forcing  the  interpretation  into 
rhymes. 

The  full  name  of  Hafiz  was  “Mohammed  Sharas-ud-deen 
Hafiz.”  Probably  the  first  of  these  three  names  was  all  that 
he  possessed  in  his  childhood.  Shams-ud-deen,  which  means 
“Sun  of  the  Faith,”  and  Hafiz,  which  implies  “  One  who  knows 
the  Koran,”  are  appellations  of  honor,  which  were  probably 
conferred  upon  him  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame. 

A  greater  than  Hafiz,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  the  most 
learned  Persians,  is  that  older  poet,  the  Sheik  Sa’di,  also  of 
Shiraz.  In  view  of  Shiraz,  yet  farther  in  the  mountains,  we 
found  the  reputed  tomb  of  Sa’di.  Sa’di  is  supposed  to  have 
been  born  in  1194  a.d. 

In  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  Sa’di’s  “Gulistan” 
(Rose  Garden),  Mr.  Eastwick  says:  “It  appears  that  his 
[Sa’di’s]  father’s  name  was  Abdu’llah,  and  that  he  was  de¬ 
scended  from  Ali,  the  son-in-law  of  Mohammed;  but  that, 
nevertheless,  his  father  held  no  higher  office  than  some  petty 
situation  under  the  Diwan.  From  ‘  Bustan,’  ii.,  2,  it  appears 
that  he  lost  his  father  when  but  a  child;  while  from  the 
sixth  story  of  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  ‘Gulistan’  we  learn 
that  his  mother  survived  to  a  later  period.  He  was  edu¬ 
cated  at  the  Nizamieh  college  at  Baghdad,  Avhere  he  held  an 


ME.  eastwick’s  tkakslatiox. 


357 


idrai’j  or  fellowship  (^Biistan/  vii.,  14),  and  was  instructed  in 
science  by  the  learned  Abti-’l-farj-bin-Janzi  ('Gulistan,’  ii., 
20),  and  in  theology  by  Abdu’l  Kadir  Gilani,  with  whom  he 
made  his  first  pilgrimage  to  Makkah.  This  pilgrimage  he 
repeated  no  less  than  fourteen  times. 

Sa’di  was  twice  married.  Of  his  first  nuptials,  at  Aleppo, 
we  have  a  most  amusing  account  in  the  thirty-first  story  of 
the  second  chapter  of  the  ‘  Gulistan.’  ” 

The  following  is  Mr.  Eastwick’s  translation  of  this  mar¬ 
riage  story : 

Having  become  weary  of  the  society  of  my  friends  at 
Damascus,  I  set  out  for  the  'wilderness  at  Jerusalem,  and 
associated  with  the  brutes,  until  I  was  made  prisoner  by  the 
Flanks,  who  set  me  to  work  along  with  Jews  at  di^^ino*  in 
the  fosse  of  Tripolis,  till  one  of  the  principal  men  of  Aleppo, 
between  whom  and  myself  a  former  intimacy  had  subsisted, 
passed  that  way,  and  recognized  me,  and  said,  ‘  What  state 
is  this?  and  how  are  you  living?’  I  replied, 

[stanza.] 

“  ‘Prom  men  to  mountain  and  to  wild  I  fled, 

Myself  to  heavenly  converse  to  betake  ; 

Conjecture  now  my  state,  that  in  a  shed 
Of  savages  I  must  my  dwelling  make.’ 

[couplet.] 

“‘Better  to  live  in  chains  with  those  we  love, 

d  han  with  the  strange,  ’mid  flow’rets  gav,  to  move.’ 

He  took  compassion  on  my  state,  and  with  ten  dinars 
redeemed  me  from  the  bondage  of  the  Franks.  He  had  a 
daughter,  whom  he  united  to  me  in  the  marriage-knot,  with 
a  fortune  of  a  hundred  dinars.  As  time  went  on,  the  girl 
turned  out  of  a  bad  temper,  quarrelsome  and  unruly.  She 
began  to  give  loose  to  her  tongue,  and  to  disturb  my  happi¬ 
ness,  as  they  have  said. 


358 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


[distichs.] 

“  ‘In  a  good  man’s  house  an  evil  wife 
Is  his  hell  above,  in  this  present  life. 

From  a  vixen  wife  protect  us  well : 

Save  us,  O  God!  from  the  pains  of  helV 

‘‘At  length  she  gave  vent  to  reproaches,  and  said,  ‘Art 
thou  not  he  whom  my  father  purchased  from  the  Franks’  pris¬ 
on  for  ten  dinars?’  I  replied,  ‘Yes;  he  redeemed  me  with 
ten  dinars,  and  sold  me  into  thy  hands  for  a  hundred.’ 

[distichs.] 

“I’ve  heard  that  once  a  man  of  high  degree 
From  a  wolf’s  teeth  and  claws  a  lamb  set  free ; 

That  night  its  throat  he  severed  with  a  knife  ; 

When  thus  complained  the  lamb’s  departing  life  : 

‘  Thou  from  the  wolf  didst  save  me  then,  but  now 
Too  plainly  I  perceive  the  wolf  art  thou.’  ” 

It  is  well,  in  reading  the  translations  of  Sa’di,  to  remember 
the  Eastern  saying,  that  “  each  word  of  Sa’di  has  seventy-two 
meanings.” 

In  the  “  Gulistan  ”  (Mr.  Gladwin’s  translation),  Sa’di  speaks 
of  a  man  “  stringing  himself  upon  the  cord  of  our  acquaint¬ 
ance  and,  adopting  his  metaphor,  I  will  endeavor  to  string 
this  illustrious  Persian  more  thoroughly  upon  the  cord  of 
our  acquaintance  by  a  fe^v  additional  quotations  from  the 
“  Gulistan.” 

He  was  evidently  anxious,  above  all  things,  to  obtain  the 
favor  of  the  king  for  himself  and  his  work,  though  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  following  loyal  effusion  contains  the 
expression  of  his  genuine  convictions:  “A  king,”  he  writes, 
“is  the  shadow  of  God,  and  a  shadow  should  be  the  image 
of  its  substance;  the  disposition  of  the  subject  is  not  capable 
of  good  unless  it  be  restrained  by  the  sword  of  the  sovereign ; 
any  peaceable  demeanor  which  is  observed  in  the  world  orig¬ 
inates  in  the  justice  of  princes;  but  that  sovereign’s  judg- 


359 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  “  GtJLISTAN.” 

nient  can  never  be  just  whose  rule  is  founded  in  wickedness.” 
This  last  sentence  being,  as  Sa’di  evidently  supposed,  of  a 
most  venturesome  character,  he  adds  that  it  met  Abaca-an’s 
fullest  concurrence and  then  with  regard  to  the  work  in 
hand,  the  ^^Gulistan”  itself,  he  writes,  ^^It  will  be  really  com¬ 
plete  when  it  shall  have  met  a  favorable  reception  at  court, 
and  obtained  the  indulgent  perusal  of  that  prince,  the  asylum 
of  the  world,  shadow  of  omnipotence,  ray  of  gracious  provi¬ 
dence,  treasury  of  the  age,  refuge  of  the  faith,  fortified  from 
above,  victorious  over  his  foes,  arm  of  triumphant  fortune, 
luminary  of  resplendent  piety,  most  illustrious  of  mankind, 
glory  of  orthodoxy,  Sa’ad,  the  son  of  the  mighty  Atabak,  all- 
powerful  emperor,  ruler  over  the  necks  of  the  people,  lord- 
paramount  of  Arabia  and  Persia,  monarch  of  the  sea  and  land, 
successor  of  the  throne  of  Solomon,  Mozuffar-u’d-deen,”  etc. 

In  a  less  servile  mood,  Sa’di  avows,  I  swear  it  were  equal 
to  the  torments  of  hell  to  enter  into  paradise  through  the 
intervention  of  a  neighbor;”  and  in  a  higher  tone  he  says. 
Be  undefiled,  O  brother,  in  thine  integrity ;  washer-men  beat 
none  but  dirty  clothes  against  a.  stone.” 

The  ways  of  kings  and  of  their  followers  have  not,  it  seems, 
changed  in  Persia  during  seven  hundred  years.  Sa’di  lays  it 
down  as  proverbial  that  “  from  the  plunder  of  five  eggs,  made 
with  the  sanction  of  the  king,  his  troops  will  stick  a  thousand 
fowls  on  their  spits.”  But  subjects  must  not  complain  of 
kings ;  for  to  maintain  an  opinion  contrary  to  the  judgment 
of  the  king  were  to  steep  our  hands  in  our  own  blood ;  verily, 
were  the  king  to  say, ‘This  day  is  night,’  it  would  behoove 
us  to  reply,  ‘Lo,  there  are  the  moon  and  the  seven  stars  !’  ” 

“  Draw  the  foot  of  contentment  within  the  mantle  of  safe¬ 
ty  ”  is  an  expression  of  rare  wisdom,  one  which  may  well  have 
made  any  one  of  Sa’di’s  readers  “  drop  his  head  on  the  bosom 
of  reflection.” 

“  Do  not  sprinkle  his  sore  with  the  salt  of  harsh  words,” 


360 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


and  “  Withdraw  the  hand  of  reproach  from  the  skirt  of  my 
fatality  ”  (or  destiny),  are  among  the  sayings  of  this  work. 

Sudden  death,  in  the  flowing  Persian  of  Sa’di,  is  rendered, 
“All  at  once  the  foot  of  his  existence  stumbled  at  the  grave 
of  being,  and  the  sigh  of  separation  burst  from  the  dwelling 
of  his  family.” 

Sa’di  could  say  pretty  things  of  a  lady  as  of  a  king.  An 
Irish  peasant  once  said  to  an  English  peer,  “  May  every  hair 
of  your  head  be  a  mold-candle  to  light  yer  to  glory !”  But 
Sa’di  was  even  more  extravagant:  “Wert  thou,”  he  wrote, 
“  to  seat  thyself  upon  the  pupil  of  mine  eye,  I  would  court 
thee  to  remain,  for  thou  art  lovely.” 

The  following  sentences  must  conclude  my  extracts  from 
this  very  remarkable  work : 

“  While  the  body  of  a  fat  man  is  getting  lean,  a  lean  man 
must  fall  victim  of  hardship.” 

“If  in  place  of  a  loaf  of  bread,  the  orb  of  the  sun  had  been 
in  his  [a  stingy  merchant’s]  wallet,  nobody  would  have  seen 
daylight  in  this  world  until  the  day  of  judgment.” 

“Whenever  thy  hand  can  reach  it,  pluck  out  thy  foe’s 
heart ;  for  such  an  opportunity  washes  anger  from  thy  brain.” 

“  Whoever  sees  gold  lowers  his  head,  even  though,  like  the 
scales  of  Justice,  he  has  iron-bound  shoulders.” 

“Were  they  to  take  the  ass  of  Jesus  to  Mecca,  on  its  re¬ 
turn  from  that  pilgrimage  it  would  still  be  an  ass.” 

“  The  money  of  the  miser  comes  out  of  the  earth  when  he 
himself  enters  into  it.” 

The  works  of  these  great  writers  will  not  pass  away  ;  they 
are  safely  enshrined  in  letters  which  are  frequently  repro¬ 
duced.  We  should  be  glad  if  we  had  the  same  confldence 
that  the  remains  of  the  tombs,  and  halls,  and  palaces  of  Cy¬ 
rus,  of  Darius,  and  of  Xerxes,  which  adorn  the  road  from 
Ispahan  to  Shiraz,  were  equally  assured  against  neglect  and 
injury. 


SLAVES  AND  SLAVE  -  BROKEES. 


361 


Shiraz  is  famous  for  its  ^^gardenSj”  which,  however,  are 
not  gardens  in  the  English  acceptation  of  the  word,  but  rath¬ 
er  shrubberies ;  groves  of  orange  and  cypress  trees,  delicious 
in  their  checkered  sunlight  and  shade,  in  the  views  from  be¬ 
tween  the  trees ;  containing  lovely  vistas  of  grove  ending  only 
at  the  far-off  mountains  j  inclosures,  melancholy  with  ruined 
marble  tanks  and  imarets  (as  the  pavilions  are  called),  falling 
slowly  to  decay. 

Inside  a  Persian  city  there  is  nothing  picturesque,  except 
in  association  with  the  many-colored  dresses  of  the  people. 
In  the  larger  meidaii,  or  open  space,  of  Shiraz,  I  saw  one  man 
kill  an  ox  and  anotheF  a  sheep,  and  begin  to  dress  them  in 
the  place  where  they  fell,  which  seemed  a  note  ”  of  great 
barbarism,  as  if  it  were  no  matter  at  all  where  the  slaughter¬ 
ing  of  butchers’  meat  was  carried  on.  Slaves  are  very  nu¬ 
merous  in  Shiraz ;  and  there  are  persons  who  act  as  brokers 
for  the  sale  of  this  property,”  not  by  public  auction,  but  by 
transfer  from  one  family  to  another.  In  this  way  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  the  slaves  of  i)ne  household  are  sold  into  another.  A 
young  boy  was  pointed  out  to  us  who  had  been  lately  pur¬ 
chased  for  thirty-five  tomans.  The  English  doctors  in  Per¬ 
sia,  and  also  the  French  doctor  who  attends  the  Shah,  are  in 
great  request  among  the  higher  class  of  natives,  especially  in 
cases  where  surgical  skill  is  required.  But  the  European 
doctors  never  undertake  a  very  serious  case  without  a  bond, 
sealed  by  the  patient  and  his  nearest  relatives.  By  this  doc¬ 
ument  it  is  arranged  that  half  the  sum  to  be  paid  for  the  op¬ 
eration  is  to  be  delivered  beforehand,  and  the  other  half  if 
the  sick  man  recovers.  It  is  always  further  agreed  that  un¬ 
der  no  circumstances  is  the  doctor  to  be  held  liable  for  the 
results  of  his  operation,  which,  as  is  natural  in  the  very  grave 
cases  to  which  alone  their  attention  is  summoned,  are  not 
rarely  followed  by  death.  The  operation  most  commonly  un¬ 
dertaken  in  this  way  is  lithotomy ;  and  I  have  heard  it  said 

16 


362 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


of  the  French  sui’geon  who  resides  in  Teheran  that  he  has 
been  successful  in  a  greater  number  of  cases  than  even  Sir 
Henry  Thompson  himself. 

“Morning  calls”  form  a  recognized  part  of  Persian  eti¬ 
quette;  and  among  those  who  honored  us  with  this  sort  of 
attention  during  our  stay  in  Shiraz  was  the  priest  of  the  small 
Armenian  community,  a  man  most  pitifully  poor,  and  appar¬ 
ently  without  hope  of  improving  his  miserable  condition.  If 
he  could  send  a  sufficient  present  to  his  bishop,  then  he  might 
get  nominated  as  priest  to  some  position  in  India  or  Java, 
where  he  would  obtain  a  good  income.  But  he  sighed  hope¬ 
lessly  at  the  impossibility  of  acquiring  the  amount  of  silver 
which  was  requisite  to  move  his  spiritual  father.  The  ritual 
of  the  Armenian  Church  is  very  severe ;  and  the  priests  are 
enjoined,  before  administering  the  sacrament  of  bread  and 
wine,  to  spend  half  the  previous  day  in  the  “  hamam,”  or 
bath,  and  then  to  fast  all  night  without  sleep.  Such  Chris¬ 
tians,  in  a  place  like  Shiraz,  lead  a  fearful  life,  under  every 
disadvantage  that  bigotry,  injustice,  and  the  absence  of  any 
possible  publication  of  their  wrongs,  or  official  representative 
of  a  foreign  power  to  whom  they  may  appeal,  can  bring  upon 
them.  If  a  case  of  flagrant  oppression  and  cruelty  occurred 
as  far  north  as  Tabriz  or  Teheran,  it  is  probable  that,  if  his 
attention  were  called  to  it,  the  Russian  minister  or  consul 
would  interfere ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Russian  Lega¬ 
tion  at  Teheran  can  command  the  action  of  the  Shah’s  Gov¬ 
ernment. 

I  have  not  observed  an  equal  readiness  to  move  on  the 
part  of  the  English  minister  even  in  those  affairs  in  which 
his  influence  would  be  greatest.  When  Mr.  Bruce  had  tele¬ 
graphed  a  message  informing  Mr.  Thomson  of  the  dangerous 
invitation  to  murder  which  the  Zil-i-Sultan  had  rashly  and 
thoughtlessly  uttered  in  Ispahan,  Mr.  Thomson  neglected  the 
common  obligation  of  courtesy,  and  of  proper  consideration 


MK.  THOMSO]^^  AND  ME.  BRUCE. 


363 


for  the  dangerous  circumstances  of  the  missionary.  He  sent 
no  acknowledgment  whatever  of  the  receipt  of  this  urgent 
message.  Mr.  Bruce  thought  it  his  duty,  in  a  matter  of  such 
great  consequence,  to  support  this  message  with  a  full  state¬ 
ment  of  his  case,  and  to  send  by  special  messenger  to  the 
British  minister  in  Teheran  an  elaborate  report  of  the  past 
and  present  circumstances  of  his  school.  I  was  favored  with 
an  opportunity  of  reading  this  paper,  a  copy  of  which  wms,  I 
believe,  addressed  at  the  same  time  to  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  in  London,  and  I  was  much  impressed  with  the  tone 
of  fairness,  moderation,  and  respect  in  which  it  was  composed. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  school  had  done,  and  was 
doing,  a  great  and  good  work,  affording  a  valuable  education 
to  the  impoverished  Christians  of  the  districts  of  Ispahan, 
and  thus  enabling  them.to  improve  their  condition  by  emigra¬ 
tion  to  British  India.  It  was  plain  to  any  one  that  the  mis¬ 
sionary  ’was  isolated,  and  in  great  need  of  the  friendly  and 
personal  support  of  the  minister.  When,  in  these  circum¬ 
stances,  he  had  sent  at  his  own  cost  a  messenger  upon  an 
eight  days’  journey  across  the  snows  of  Kuhrud  to  Teheran, 
I  should  not  have  thought  it  possible  that  Mr.  Thomson,  or 
any  one  in  his  position,  on  receiving  this  statement,  would 
have  sent  the  messenger  back  upon  his  long  journey  without 
a  word  of  acknowledgment. 

On  hearing  of  the  return  of  his  servant,  the  missionary 
hurried  from  his  room  to  meet  the  messenger.  There  was  a 
congregation  of  people  to  witness  the  man’s  return  after  a 
twenty  days’  absence,  and  all  heard  Mr.  Bruce’s  anxious  and 
impulsive  question,  You  have  a  letter  from  Thomson  Sahib?” 
“Kothing,  sahib,”  was  the  reply;  “I  was  told  there  was  no 
answer.”  I  shall  never  forget  the  blank  disappointment  of 
the  missionary.  He  knew  how  grievously  this  reply  and  his 
chagrin,  obvious  to  all  the  by-standers,  would  augment  the 
dangers  and  difficulties  of  his  position.  We  were  not  at  all 


364 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


surprised  to  hear  the  next  morning  that  in  the  bazaars  of  Is¬ 
pahan  and  Djulfa  the  common  talk  was  that  “Thomson  Sa¬ 
hib  ”  cared  nothing  for  what  the  Ispahanees  might  do  to  Mr. 
Bruce ;  and  it  was  said  that  when  “  Thomson  Sahib  ”  got  the 
missionary’s  letter  he  tore  it  in  pieces  and  threw  the  bits  at 
the  messenger.  This  and  much  more  of  the  same  purport 
Mr.  Bruce  heard  from  his  neighbors  in  Djulfa.  I  feel  sure 
Mr.  Thomson  was  not  inactive  in  making  representations  to 
the  Persian  Government,  but  he  was  wrong  in  leaving  Mr. 
Bruce  without  a  word  of  support  in  a  position  of  very  un¬ 
usual  difficulty. 

For  the  measures  which  followed,  and  for  the  re-opening 
of  the  school,  I  hardly  think  Mr.  Thomson  can  claim  credit. 
Immediately  upon  hearing  of  the  prince’s  decree,  I  wrote 
from  my  bed,  in  which  I  was  suffering  from  fever,  to  several 
friends  possessing  much  influence  at  home,  begging  them  to 
move  in  the  matter ;  and  I  think  it  more  than  probable  that 
Mr.  Thomson  was  impelled,  by  consequent  instructions  from 
England  in  any  measures  he  took,  to  obtain  a  reversal  of  the 
Zil-i-Sultan’s  arbitrary  decree. 

If  any  one  were  to  ask  me.  What  is  there  to  be  seen  in 
Shiraz?  I  should  answer,  Nothing  of  interest  besides  that 
which  I  have  mentioned.  No  great  building,  no  historic  ruin, 
claims  attention.  One  of  the  best  houses  in  the  place  is  the 
office  of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph.  It  is  entered  from  the 
larger  meidan.  Inside,  in  the  spacious  court-yard  or  garden, 
there  were  usually  some  piles  of  telegraph  stores,  iron  poles, 
and  earthenware  insulators.  The  inspectors  report  that  about 
Shiraz  a  large  number  of  these  earthenware  appliances  are 
destroyed  by  bullets.  Proficiency  in  placing  a  bullet  in  the 
head  of  an  enemy  or  in  that  of  an  antelope  is  an  object  of 
desire ;  and  what  mark  is  so  good,  or,  when  hit,  so  telling’,  as 
the  white  insulators  suspended  on  telegraph-poles,  over  all 
the  lonely  plains  and  the  desolate  hills  from  north  to  south 


MAJOK  CHAMP AIn’s  REPORTS. 


365 


of  Persia,?  Besides,  there  is  in  these  a  prize,  an  iron  hook, 
which  falls  to  the  ground  like  a  bird  when  the  mark  is  well 
hit,  and  is  valued  more  highly  than  a  dead  snipe  or  a  partridge. 

In  the  report  for  18 75-’ 76  by  Major  Champain,  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  Director  of  the  entire  service  of  the  Indo-Persian 
Telegraph,  the  following  occurs  under  the  head  of  “  Interrup¬ 
tions  “  The  total  interruptions  were  fewer  than  in  any  pre¬ 
vious  year,  and  amounted  in  the  aggregate  to  only  fifty-nine 
hours  fifteen  minutes.  One  break  in  May,  1875,  which  lasted 
thirty-one  and  a  half  hours,  was  caused  in  a  rather  curious 
way.  The  line  crossed  a  village  not  very  far  from  Bushire, 
and  this  village  having  been  attacked  and  burned  to  the 
ground  by  robbers,  the  wires  were  severed  by  heat,  and  could 
not  be  immediately  restored.  The  remaining  twenty- seven 
hours  of  interruption  were  caused  by  excessive  cold  on  the 
high  ground  in  the  interior  of  the  country. 

“  Willful  damage  has,  I  am  happy  to  say,  somewhat  de¬ 
creased  within  the  past  year,  although  the  South  of  Persia  is 
probably  in  a  more  lawless  condition  than  ever,  and  robberies 
and  outr.ages  of  the  worst  kind  continue.  In  fact,  the  road 
from  Bushire  to  Ispahan,  and  some  parts  between  Ispahan 
and  the  capital,  are  so  infested  with  robber  tribes,  that  travel¬ 
ing  is  out  of  the  question  except  for  strong  and  well-armed 
parties.  The  marauders,  however,  display  no  special  hostility 
to  the  telegraph,  and  rarely  touch  it  except  between  Bushire 
and  Kazeroon.  In  that  district  every  man  and  boy  carries  a 
gun,  and  the  temptation  to  try  the  effect  of  their  bullets  on 
the  iron  poles  seems  to  be  irresistible.” 

In  Major  Champain’s  report  for  18 74-’ 75,  he  quotes  a  state¬ 
ment  on  this  subject  made  to  himself  by  the  local  director. 
Major  Smith,  who  reported:  “The  line  between  Shiraz  and 
Bushire  has  suffered  greatly  from  willful  damage  of  the  most 
purely  wanton  nature.  In  that  part  of  Persia  every  man  is 
armed,  and  it  would  appear  that,  in  default  of  more  tempting 


366 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAJ^-. 


objects,  the  peojDle  amuse  themselves  by  trying  their  guns  on 
the  cast-iron  sockets  of  the  telegraph-poles.  Many  insulators 
have  also  been  destroyed  in  the  same  part  of  the  country  for 
the  sake  of  their  iron  hooks.  An  effectual  remedy  for  these 
unfortunate  propensities  of  the  natives  is  provided  by  the 
twelfth  article  of  the  Telegraph  Convention  of  the  2d  of  .De¬ 
cember,  1872,  to  which  the  Persian  Government  has  hitherto 
refused  to  give  any  effect,  on  the  frivolous  pretext,  as  I  un¬ 
derstand,  that  the  article  refers  only  to  the  wire,  and  not  to 
the  mere  adjuncts  of  posts  and  insulators.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  if  the  provisions  of  the  article  were  duly  enforced,  the 
willful  damage  would  entirely  cease.  As  it  is,  the  new  iron 
poles  are  shot  down  faster  than  we  can  put  them  up.  The 
bills  for  the  repair  of  willful  damage  already  amount  to  up¬ 
ward  of  seven  thousand  tomans,  of  which  not  a  penny  has 
yet  been  paid.” 

At  the  telegraph-office  in  Shiraz,  the  garden  of  fifty  yards 
square  has  three  broad  pavements  leading  from  the-meidan 
to  the  house — one  in  the  centre,  the  others  at  the  side-walls. 
Between  these  there  are  plane-trees,  and  at  the  end  there  is  a 
low  terrace  of  brick,  upon  which  is  the  ground-floor  of  the 
house.  In  this,  the  large  room  to  the  left  is  the  Persian  of¬ 
fice,  while  in  that  to  the  right  the  Indian  and  European  busi¬ 
ness  is  conducted.  From  the  roof  of  this  house,  which  is  of 
unusual  height,  trouble  has  been  made.  It  commands  a  view 
of  the  interior  quadrangle  of  several  Persian  houses,  and 
many  complaints  were  consequently  made  when  it  was  first 
occupied  by  giaours.  It  is  understood  that  the  Persian  neigh¬ 
bors  have  now  grown  used  to  the  possibility  of  this  observa¬ 
tion,  and  that  some  are  not  even  displeased  when  it  occurs. 
When  we  ascended  in  order  to  obtain  one  of  the  most  com- 
jDrehensive  views  over  Shiraz,  I  observed  that  our  appearance 
excited  considerable  interest,  and  certainly  no  ‘displeasure. 
And  if  one  can  withdraw  one’s  eyes  from  the  eternal  beauty 


PEESIAN^  HOMES. 


367 


of  the  mountains  and  streams  round  about  Shiraz,  from  the 
general  aspect  of  the  flat  mud -roofs,  above  which  rise  the 
white  stems  of  plane-trees,  the  dark-green  spires  of  the  cy¬ 
presses,  with  here  and  there  a  brown  minaret,  or  a  dome  cov¬ 
ered  with  a  glazing  of  greenish  blue;  if  in  sight  of  all  this 
one  does  feel  interested  in  the  details  of  Persian  housekeep¬ 
ing,  these  are  well  exposed  to  view.  The  ladies  may  be  seen 
lolling  upon  the  floor  of  their  apartments,  the  anderoon,  the 
front  of  the  rooms  all  open  to  the  welcome  warmth  of  the 
wintry  sun.  There  is  nothing  on  their  horizon  but  the  nar¬ 
row  walls  of  home,  and  it  is  not  surprising  if  the  apparition  of 
persons  in  strange  garb  upon  a  neighboring  height  is  to  them 
the  most  exciting  event  of  the  day.  Their  slaves  cross  and 
recross  the  quadrangle  from  room  to  room  in  the  performance 
of  household  duties.  The  black-eyed  children  roll  and  play 
in  the  same  open  space.  The  father,  who  is  patriarch,  master, 
ruler  of  all,  rarely  appears.  He  is  hunting,  or  in  the  bazaar, 
or  smoking,  or  sleeping,  or  at  the  palace  or  the  mosque.  One 
can  not  be  surprised  that  as  the  despotic  ruler  of  his  domestic 
realm,  in  which  there  can  be  no  interference  from  without,, he 
hates  the  vantage-ground  of  this  roof  from  which  people  of  a 
monogamous  race  presume  now  and  then  to  look  in  upon  his 
polygamous  household. 

The  district  of  Shiraz,  which  is,  I  believe,  identical  with 
the  ancient  province  of  Ears,  has,  and  probably  deserves,  a 
bad  name  for  disorder.  Crimes  of  robbery  and  violence  are 
much  more  frequent  in  this  than  in  the  northern  part  of  Per¬ 
sia.  To  some  extent  the  crime  of  Pars  may  be  attributed  to 
the  mountainous  nature  of  the  country,  which  affords  shelter 
from  observation,  and  probable  security  in  case  of  pursuit, 
for  bands  of  robbers;  but  it  is  also  owing  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  large  nomad  population,  wandering  tribes  of  Eeli- 
ats  and  others,  which,  according  to  the  season,  pass  from 
north  to  south,  or  from  south  to  north,  in  this  province,  and 


368 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAYAN-. 


live  a  gypsy  life,  with  the  assistance  of  flocks  and  herds,  and, 
if  they  are  not  belied,  of  much  robbery.  From  Ispahan  to 
Shiraz,  there  are  few  plains  lower  than  five  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea-level.  At  four  days’  march  south  of  Shiraz,  on 
the  road  to  Bushire,  the  path  rises  to  above  seven  thousand 
feet.  Soon  afterward  it  falls  to  near  the  sea-level,  and  the 
climate  changes  in  a  march  of  thirty  miles  from  the  rigor  of 
winter  to  the  genial  warmth  of  verdant  spring.  To  these 
lower  lands,  the  thousands  of  Eeliats  and  the  other  nomads 
®f  Peisia  wend  their  way  in  autumn,  blocking  the  mountain 
passes  with  their  cattle ;  and  back  again  they  come  to  the 
highlands  when  the  summer  sun  has  clothed  the  hills  with 
green,  and  burned  up  the  vegetation  of  the  lowlands  upon 
which  they  have  passed  the  winter.  The  unsettled  habits  of 
these  people  are  supposed  to  conduce  to  a  lawless  life.  Cer¬ 
tain  it  is  that,  by  some  people  or  other,  the  province  is  kept 
in  perpetual  terror ;  anywhere  in  Ears  the  talk  of  the  road  is 
of  robbers  and  of  robbery.  The  traveler  who  passes  safely 
through  the  realm  of  the  Governor  of  Shiraz  is  universally 
held  to  be  fit  subject  for  congratulation.  Travelers  gather 
together  for  mutual  protection;  and  Europeans  complain, 
when  they  are  victims,  that  the  English  Government  does 
not  exact  retribution  and  indemnity  with  sufiicient  vigor  and 
determination.  Perhaps,  if  this  charge  is  well  founded,  it 
may  find  some  excuse  in  the  unwillingness  of  the  agents  of 
any  civilized  power  to  rouse  the  Persian  Government  to  such 
indiscriminate  and  wholesale  vengeance  as  it  is  ever  ready, 
upon  the  motion  of  the  minister  of  a  European  power,  to 
wreak  upon  its  miserable  subjects.  Shortly  before  we  trav¬ 
eled  through  this  ill-reputed  province,  the  eldest  son  of  Lord 
N^apier,  of  Magdala,  passed  through  Shiraz,  on  his  way  from 
India  to  Teheran,  charged  with  a  special  mission  of  observa¬ 
tion  in  the  Persian  capital.  He  was  accompanied  for  some 
distance  by  Dr.  Waters,  who  was  attached  to  the  Residency 


A  VENGEFUL  GOVERNMENT. 


369 


at  Busliire,  and  from  whose  narrative  of  the  incidents  of 
theii  journey  I  gather  the  particulars  of  the  attack  upon 
theii  caravan.  Fortunately  for  themselves,  these  gentlemen 
were  not  with  their  baggage  when  it  was  stopped  and  rifled 
by  a  band  of  about  fifty  robbers,  who  killed  one  of  the  mount¬ 
ed  guards  with  a  bullet,  and  with  an  iron-headed  mace — the 
common  walking-stick  of  the  Persian  peasantry  in  Pars  — 
smashed  the  jaw  of  an  Armenian  who,  for  the  better  securi¬ 
ty  of  money  upon  his  person,  had  joined  the  caravan  of  the 
Englishman. 

Major  iSTapier  was,  of  course,  in  no  way  responsible  for  the 
manner  in  which  the  Persian  Government  pursued  and  pun¬ 
ished  the  men  who  were  guilty,  or  were  assumed  to  be  guilty, 
of  this  crime.  I  have  been  told  that  the  prisoners  were  taken 
somewhat  at  hazard,  the  main  evidence  being  that  they  were 
near  the  spot  j  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  three-and-twenty 
men  had  their  throats  cut  by  the  public  executioners  in  Shiraz 
on  account  of  this  robbery  and  murder ;  nor  that  this  is  a  hu¬ 
mane  punishment  compared  with  that  by  which  the  Firman 
Firma’s  predecessor,  the  Hissam-us-Sultan,  endeavored  to  re¬ 
press  crimes  of  this  sort  in  the  province  of  Fars.  He  tried 
throat -cutting,  and  left  the  bleeding  bodies  exposed  to  the 
view  of  all  comers  in  the  meidan  of  Shiraz.  He  tried  cruci¬ 
fixion,  nailing  the  wretches  by  the  hands  and  feet  to  the  walls 
of  the  town,  and  leaving  them,  under  a  guard  of  soldiers,  to 
die  of  exhaustion  and  starvation.  Finally,  he  tried  burial 
alive  in  pits,  or  cylinders  of  brick-work,  of  depth  such  as  to 
allow  the  criminal’s  head  to  appear  above  the  top.  Pinioned 
and  naked,  the  robbers  were  placed  in  these  short  open  col¬ 
umns  of  brick-work,  and  a  white  plaster,  not  unlike  plaster  of 
Paris,  was  then  poured,  neck-deep,  over  their  bodies,  around 
which  it  set  into  the  hardness  of  stone.  I  questioned  several 
persons  living  far  apart  as  to  the  particulars  of  this  horrible 
punishment;  and  their  substantial  agreement  left  no  doubt 

16* 


370 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


on  my  mind  that  it  had  been  inflicted,  or  that  tlie  miserable 
men  who  were  subject  to  this  most  cruel  death  were  in  their 
dying  hours  barbarously  ill-treated,  on  their  exposed  and  de¬ 
fenseless  heads,  by  the  rabble  and  the  soldiery  of  Shiraz.  On 
finding  the  Firman  Firma  too  weak  for  the  place,  the  Shah’s 
Government  have  lately  endeavored  to  persuade  the  His- 
sam-us-Sultan  to  return  to  Shiraz.  But  he  has  successfully 
pleaded  age  and  increasing  infirmity,  and  another  has  been 
appointed. 

Such  ruthless  punishment,  always  uncertain  in  its  venge¬ 
ance,  has  never  been  successful  in  exterminating  crime.  The 
sins  of  the  executive  of  Shiraz  are  visited  upon  the  people, 
and  upon  all  who  travel  among  them.  The  Government 
of  Shiraz,  in  degree  worse  probably  than  that  of  any  other 
province  of  Persia,  is  a  system  of  oppression,  made,  with  all 
the  power  and  authority  and  force  of  the  State,  for  private 
advantage.  The  taxes  are  farmed,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  amount 
demanded  is  limited  only  by  ability  of  payment ;  soldiers  are 
taught  robbery  by  being  officially  engaged  in  making  de¬ 
mands  for  money,  which  they  know  to  be  unjust,  from  the 
all-enduring  peasants ;  the  customs  are  farmed,  and  collected 
by  the  armed  servants  of  the  contractor,  who  is  subject  to  no 
surveillance,  and  who  renders  no  accounts.  Those  are  ex¬ 
empt  from  direct  taxation  whOj  possessing  the  means  to  ren¬ 
der  them  independent  of  exaction,  are  the  most  able  to  pay. 
Direct  taxation  in  Persia  is  levied  solely  upon  those  engaged 
in  production,  and  the  merchant  or  tradesman  pays  only  in 
respect  of  his  store  in  the  bazaar.  In  the  summer  of  1875, 
the  dismayed  population  of  Shiraz  heard  that  their  sovereign, 
the  Shah,  intended  to  make  a  royal  progress  to  the  south  of 
his  dominions.  An  order  was  published  that  no  corn  was  to 
leave  the  province,  .because  all  might  be  required  for  the  use 
of  the  Shah  and  his  retinue.  The  great  people  of  Shiraz, 
who,  of  course,  could  evade  this  or  any  other  edict,  took  ad- 


THE  SHAH  AND  SHIRAZ. 


371 


vantage  of  the  circumstanceSj  and  made  money.  The  poor 
suffered  most  cruelly.  Some  say  the  Shah  was  bought  off; 
that  in  consideration  of  receiving  so  many  thousand  tomans, 
his  majesty  agreed  not  to  quit  Teheran;  and  this,  which 
sounds  so  scandalous,  is  never  spoken  of  by  Persians  as  a 
very  extraordinary  or  even  uncommon  way  of  dealing  witli 
the  intentions  of  the  sovereign,  his  visits  being  always  regard¬ 
ed  as  involving  extortion  and  loss,  owing  to  the  rapacity  of 
his  followers,  and  as  an  evil  which,  like  capital  punishment 
in  Persia,  may  by  gift  of  gold  be  averted. 


372 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAN. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Eoad  to  Bushire. — Yahia  Khan’s  Portrait. — To  Cinerada. — Last  View 
of  Shiraz. — Difficult  Traveling. — Khan-i-Zonoon'. — A  Caravan  in  Trou¬ 
ble. — A  Cold  Caravanserai. — Murder  of  Sergeant  Collins. — Death  of  Ser¬ 
geant  M‘Leod. — Advantage  of  an  Escort. — Dashtiarjan. — “Eaten  a  Bul¬ 
let.” — Plain  of  Dashtiarjan. — Ghooloo-Kojeh  Pass. — A  Lion  in  the  Path. 
— Mr.  Blanford’s  “  Interview.  Up  a  Tree. — A  Wounded  Horse. — Ka- 
leh-Muslur. — Mount  Perizan. — Kotul  Perizan. — A  Solitary  Rock. — View 
of  Mian-kotul. 

OpiNioisr  was  unanimous  that  it  was  impossible  to  march 
with  a  takht-i-rawan  from  Shiraz  to  Bushire.  For  three  days 
it  was  agreed  that  a  conveyance  of  that  length  might  proceed, 
but  farther  than  three  days’  march  the  paths  in  the  mount¬ 
ains  were  too  narrow  and  dangerous  to  admit  of  this  mode  of 
traveling.  We  therefore  left  the  takht-i-rawan  in  Shiraz,  and 
my  wife  had  to  face  the  prospect  of  riding  for  twelve  days 
through  a  country  certainly  not  less  dangerous  than  any  oth¬ 
er,  and  reported  by  those  who  have  traversed  the  Himalayas 
and  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  be  the  most  difficult  road  in  the 
world.  When  we  were  packing  u]3,  another  incident  occur¬ 
red,  displaying  the  habitual  cruelty  of  the  Persian  muleteers 
to  their  animals.  One  of  the  string  of  mules  which  had  been 
brought  to  Mr.  Odling’s  door  for  the  conveyance  of  our  bag¬ 
gage  had  terrible  sores  upon  its  legs  and  back,  caused  by  bad¬ 
ly  fitting  harness ;  and  it  was  proposed  to  load  this  suffering 
animal  for  the  long  journey  to  Bushire.  We  refused  to  have 
it  in  our  caravan,  and  the  muleteer,  to  whom  the  notion  of  the 
animal’s  pain  seemed  as  strange  as  it  would  be  to  others  to 
learn  that  a  flint  suffered  from  the  presence  of  quartz  in  its 


YAHIA  khan’s  POETEAIT. 


373 


sidCj  depaited  to  exchange  the  injured  mule  for  one  in  a 
sounder  condition. 

On  the  first  day  we  had  only  two  farsakhs  to  ride  to  the 
caravanserai  at  Cinerada.  Early  in  the  morning,  before  we 
set  out,  the  Firman  Firma.seiit  by  his  agreeable  nazir  a  large 
photographic  portrait  of  himself, '' pour  souvenir  de  Shiraz.” 
The  nazir  also  brought  with  him  two  sowars,  who  had  been 
specially  selected  as  our  escort  to  Bushire.  Their  horses  were 
■veiy  much  better  than  ours  to  look  at.  Somebody  suggested 
to  Mr.  Odling,  who  rode  out  of  Shiraz  with  us,  that  we  looked 
rather  like  prisoners  of  war  compelled  to  ride  our  sorry  nags 
into  captivity.  But  in  a  few  days,  when  we  came  to  the  roll¬ 
ing  stones  of  the  mountains,  our  ''  yaboos  ”  covered  their  shab¬ 
by  appearance  with  glory. 

Shiraz  is  not  a  large  place ;  it  does  not  occupy  more  than 
half  the  ground  upon  which  Ispahan  stands,  and  we  were 
soon  upon  the  plain,  on  a  westerly  course  to  Cinerada.  The 
snow  had  melted  away  in  many  places,  but  there  was  sufficient 
to  give  a  very  wintry  appearance  to  the  scene,  and  the  weath¬ 
er  was  cold  enough  to  make  my  Persian  coat  of  sheep’s  wool 
and  leather  a  very  agreeable  companion.  Shiraz  stands  at  the 
junction  of  three  wide  valleys.  One  slopes  from  the  north, 
the  way  from  Ispahan ;  another  to  the  west,  in  the  centre  of 
which  lies  the  path  toward  Bushire ;  the  largest  valley  falls 
away  toward  the  north-east. 

We  took  leave  of  Mr.  Odling  about  four  miles  from  Shiraz 
at  the  gate  of  one  of  the  gardens  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
city,  and  staid  a  few  minutes  for  a  last  look  at  Shiraz.  Per¬ 
sian  towns  seen  from  that  distance  leave  no  vivid  impression, 
and  this  is  as  true  of  Ispahan  and  Teheran  as  of  Shiraz.  If 
they  were  grandly  built,  if  they  contained  monuments  of  real 
value  and  of  permanent  interest,  these  would  probably  look 
unimportant  in  the  wide  plains  and  beneath  the  mountains  of 
Persia.  But  their  buildings  are  so  insignificant,  so  imperma- 


374 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


nent,  such  rubbishing  masses  of  mud-brick,  with  no  beauty 
of  form  or  ornament,  that  even  large  cities  have  no  appear¬ 
ance  of  dignity,  and  are  indeed  overlooked  in  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  the  grander  features  of  the  landscape. 

My  wife  was  mounted  on  a  stout  gray  pony,  which  had  very 
decided  ideas  of  its  own  as  to  the  proper  mode  of  going  to 
Bushire.  By  no  persuasion  could  it  be  induced  for  more  than 
a  moment  to  alter  its  pace  from  a  steady,  plodding  walk,  and 
my  chestnut  was  very  much  of  the  same  opinion.  The  snow 
became  more  wide-spread,  and  the  wintry  afternoon  darkened 
as  our  path  wound  through  the  valley.  We  could  see  far 
before  us  up  the  snowy  steep,  and  were  beginning  to  think 
it  possible  we  had  misunderstood  the  distance  to  Cinerada, 
when  suddenly,  behind  a  spur  of  rock,  we  came  upon  the  car¬ 
avanserai. 

We  had  no  more  troublesome  march  in  the  whole  journey 
than  that  from  Cinerada  to  Khan-i-Zonoon.  Several  caravans 
had  gone  before  us  since  the  last  great  fall  of  snow,  and  the 
mules,  treading  always  in  the  same  track,  had  worn  the  snow 
in  high  ridges,  higher  than  those  of  a  deeply  plowed  field. 
When  the  sun  shone  out,  the  bottoms  of  these  furrows  be¬ 
came  filled  with  w'ater,  which  froze  in  the  night,  and  some¬ 
times  the  ice  between  the  ridges  would  bear  the  weight  of 
our  horses,  and  sometimes  not.  When  it  bore,  the  animals 
often  slipped ;  when  it  was  thin,  their  feet  crashed  through 
with  a  jerk  distressing  to  the  horse  and  to  the  rider.  There 
was  but  one  track,  and  the  whole  caravan  passed  up  the 
mountain  in  Indian  file.  Soon  after  noon,  we  had  ascended 
about  two  thousand  feet  from  Cinerada  to  a  height  of  nearly 
seven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea-level.  But  we  found  it  im¬ 
possible  to  keep  the  caravan  together.  Kazem  had  fallen  at 
least  half  a  dozen  times  in ‘the  deep  snow,  and  his  black  mule, 
his  saddle-bags,  and  himself  bore  many  traces  of  these  tum¬ 
bles.  The  baggage  mules  had  similar  disasters,  and  after  four 


KHAN-PZONOOX. 


375 


hours’  toilsome  ride  we  had  lost  sight  of  servants  and  bag¬ 
gage — a  circumstance  which  the  sight  of  one  or  two  ugly- 
looking  parties  of  armed  men  who  had  met  us  in  the  narrow 
track  rendered  more  disquieting.  There  was  no  place  in 
which  we  could  dismount,  and  nothing  to  eat  if  we  had  done 
so,  for  Kazem,  our  store-keeper,  was  far  behind — ^we  knew  not 
where ;  and  we  were  in  a  wilderness  of  drifted  snow,  cross¬ 
ing  ridge  after  ridge,  always  hoping  that  each  would  be  the 
last,  and  always  disappointed. 

Our  two  soldiers,  Abd-ullah  and  Hassan,  had  kei3t  up  with 
ns.  I  sent  the  latter  back  to  bring  up  and  protect  the  bag¬ 
gage,  and,  with  Abd-ullah  and  my  wife’s  gholam,  we  resolved 
to  push  on  and,  hungry  as  we  were,  to  get  to  the  caravanserai 
as  quickly  as  we  could.  On  the  way  we  met  a  large  caravan 
bringing  merchandise  from  Bush  ire,  some  of  the  loads  upon 
the  mules  extending  six  feet  from  side  to  side.  This  in¬ 
volved  our  plunging  out  of  the  track  into  the  deep  snow,  and 
occasional  sad  knocks  of  the  knees  and  shins  against  the 
passing  packages.  Far  behind  we  could  see  Hassan,  with 
his  carbine  erect  upon  his  knee,  standing  on  the  summit  of 
the  mountain  waiting  for  the  stragglers,  whom  we  assumed, 
from  his  contented  attitude,  were  in  sight  from  the  point 
on  which  he  stood.  Presently  the  caravanserai  of  Khan-i- 
Zonoon  was  seen  like  a  speck  upon  the  far -extending  des¬ 
ert.  A  rill  began  to  trickle  down  the  mountain,  which  wid¬ 
ened  to  a  stream,  and,  lower,  became  a  river,  of  which  the 
surface,  frozen  from  side  to  side,  remained  unaffected  by  the 
midday  sun.  Upon  the  narrow  plain,  at  the  end  of  which 
lay  the  caravanserai,  there  was  a  scrubby  forest,  through 
which  we  passed  upon  a  slippery  and  dangerous  path.  Some 
donkeys  loaded  with  bags  of  wheat  were  being  driven  by 
two  miserable -looking  Persians  through  the  wood;  and  of 
the  number  more  than  half  had  fallen,  and  lay  helpless  on 
our  path  beneath  their  heavy  loads.  In  a  hollow,  the  sides  of 


376 


THEOUGH  PEKSIA  BY  CAEAVA^^•. 


which  were  a  mass  of  ice,  there  was  one  of  the  loads,  witli  no 
animal  beneath  it ;  the  donkey,  in  its  struggles  after  falling, 
had  probably  succeeded  in  extricating  itself  from  sacks  and 
saddle-bags.  Abd-ullah  and  our  muleteer  were  in  advance  of 
us,  and  we  saw  them  seize  the  saddle-bags  as  a  prize,  and 
turn  out  from  them  a  quantity  of  bread,  which  they  began  to 
stuff  into  their  pockets.  We  had  been  nearly  eight  hours  on 
the  road,  with  nothing  to  eat,  and  they  seemed  to  regard  this 
as  a  godsend,  taking  no  thought  that  this  bread  was  proba¬ 
bly  the  only  food  of  the  donkey -drivers  during  the  same 
journey,  in  a  much  colder  time  of  day.  We  rode  up  to  them 
and  forced  them  to  put  back  the  bread,  which,  although  the 
caravanserai  was  now  close  at  hand,  they  did  most  unwilling¬ 
ly.  It  seemed  to  us  that  this  readiness  to  rob  on  the  part  of 
two  men,  really  superior  to  the  lowest  class  of  Persians,  was 
very  indicative  of  the  predatory  instincts  of  this  uncivil¬ 
ized  and  ill-governed  people.  We  made  a  fire  in  one  of  the 
smoke-dried  brick  arches  of  the  caravanserai ;  and,  as  there 
was  nothing  with  which  to  construct  a  seat,  had  to  stand 
about  or  sit  upon  the  earthen  floor  for  two  hours  until  the 
baggage  mules  arrived.  Then  a  covering  was  nailed  over  the 
door-hole,  matting  and  carpets  laid  down,  our  iron  bedsteads 
set  up,  one  on  either  side  of  the  chimney-hole,  in  which  some 
logs  were  burning  cheerfully,  a  cloth  spread  upon  our  camp- 
table,  and  we  sat  upon  our  folding-stools  until  Kazem  appear¬ 
ed  with  a  hot  stew  of  rice  and  meat,  and  a  bottle  of  very 
good  Shiraz  wine.  Our  fire  had  been  burning  for  hours 
when  we  took  to  our  beds  at  ten  o’clock,  and  placed  a  cup  of 
milk  in  the  recess  close  by  the  chimney.  The  fire  continued 
burning  till  nearly  midnight;  and  at  half -past  five  in  the 
morning  the  frost  was  so  intense  that,  although  the  ashes  in 
the  fire-place  were  still  red,  the  milk  was  frozen  in  a  solid 
block,  and  some  soapy  water  which  I  had  left  in  a  large 
brass  hand-basin  on  going  to  bed  was  in  the  same  condition. 


MUKDER  OP  SERGEANT  COLLINS.  377 

Yet  we  were  in  29°  of  latitude,  and  very  little  more  than  six 

thousand  feet  above  the  sea-level. 

Our  ride  to  Dashtiarjan  was  hardly  less  difficult,  on  account 
of  the  ridgy  snow,  than  that  of  the  previous  day.  We  found 
it  impossible  to  do  more  than  two  miles  an  hour.  The  road 
was  in  such  a  bad  state,  we  could  not  walk,  and  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  ride  we  were  blue  with  cold.  The  path  was  un¬ 
level,  and  would  have  seemed  varied  and  picturesque  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  unchanging  glaring  white  of  the  deep  snow. 
In  a  basin  between  two  hills,  a  pole  standing  erect  by  the  side 
of  the  path  marked  the  place  of  the  most  recent  murder  of 
an  Englishman  by  Persian  robbers.  W^e  had  already  heard 
the  particulars  of  this  fatal  attack.  The  victim,  Sergeant 
Collins,  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  engaged  in  the  Telegraph 
Service,  was  riding  with  his  wife  and  servants  from  Shiraz 
to  the  next  station,  which  is  at  Dashtiarjan.  He  was  chal¬ 
lenged,  surrounded,  and  fired  at  from  the  woods ;  he  returned 
the  fire,  and  killed  one  man.  But  he  was  soon  afterward  shot 
down,  a  bullet  entering  the  back  of  his  head ;  his  body  was 
mutilated,  and  his  wife  carried  off  to  the  mountains,  where 
she  remained  for  some  days  in  captivity.  I  believe  the  mur¬ 
derers  were  never  found,  and  that  no  one  suffered  punish¬ 
ment  for  the  crime.  Another  sergeant  died  not  long  ago  in 
a  similar  wayj  but  the  circumstances  of  his  death  were  hom¬ 
icidal  rather  than  murderous.  The  attack  upon  his  comrade 
preyed  upon  his  mind,  already  disordered  by  illness  and 
drink,  until  he  fancied  that  every  man  he  met  with  on  the 
road  was  a  robber ;  and  in  this  delirious  humor  shot  an  un¬ 
offending  Armenian.  Then  he  entirely  lost  self-command, 
and,  flourishing  his  revolver,  rode  about  vowing  he  would 
shoot  the  first  Persian  robber  he  met  with.  It  was  at  a  car¬ 
avanserai  in  which  we  had  passed  a  night  that  this  mad  as¬ 
sassin  made  his  next  attempt,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  there 
were  several  men  with  guns  in  the  caravanserai,  which,  as  al- 


378 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAJO". 


most  every  body  in  Persia  carries  fire-arms,  is  usually  the 
case.  The  wretched  sergeant  was  flourishing  about,  threat¬ 
ening  every  body  he  saw  with  his  pistol.  It  was  then  that 
some  of  the  by-standers,  having  placed  a  wall  between  him 
and  themselves,  shot  him  down,  really  in  self-defense ;  and 
thus  the  second  Englishman  died  the  death  of  a  mad  dog. 

In  traveling  in  Persia,  it  is  undoubtedly  safer  not  to  be  too 
ready  with  the  pistol.”  For  our  own  parts,  we  felt  no  very 
confident  assurance  that  we  should  get  safely  through  the 
country.  All  the  English  we  met  with  in  Persia  told  us  it 
was  highly  probable  we  should  be  robbed,  and  that  it  was 
quite  certain  our  escort  would  not  be  very  energetic  in  de¬ 
fense.  In  these  circumstances,  we  had  deliberately  framed 
our  plans  of  action,  or,  rather,  of  inaction.  We  had  a  letter 
of  credit  from  merchants  trading  in  Persia,  upon  which  we 
could  obtain  money  in  Ispahan,  Shiraz,  and  Bushire ;  so  that 
the  silver  we  carried  was  only  suflicient  for  the  exj)enses 
of  the  road  between  any  two  of  these  places.  We  knew 
that  the  resistance  of  robbery  by  incautious  firing  involves 
the  maximum  of  danger,  and  were  quite  prepared  to  say 
‘‘Inshallah”  to  any  band  against  which  successful  resistance 
would  be  impossible,  and  submit  to  be  robbed.  We  believed 
that  nothing  less  than  a  band  of  forty  or  fifty  determined 
robbers  would  venture  to  stop  a  caravan  belonging  to  Euro¬ 
peans  ;  and,  without  the  least  desiring  or  expecting  that  one, 
two,  or  half  a  score  of  soldiers  could  or  would  drive  off  such 
a  force,  we  always  preferred  to  have  an  escort,  because  they 
never  failed  to  communicate  to  the  people  we  met  with,  and 
by  this  means  to  all  the  neighborhood,  that  we  were  specially 
under  the  protection  of  the  governor  of  the  province;  and 
because  attack  is  not  improbably  prevented  by  the  fear  of 
subsequent  recognition  by  the  soldiers  of  an  escort. 

The  view  from  the  hills  over  the  plain  of  Dashtiarjan  was 
very  remarkable.  A  plain  looks  small  in  Persia  when,  like 


DASHTIAEJAN-. 


379 


that  of  Dash tiar jail,  it  is  about  four  miles  broad  and  twelve 
miles  long.  Near  the  higher  and  northern  end  lay  the  build¬ 
ings  of  the  telegraph-office,  and  not  far  distant  the  mud  hov¬ 
els  of  the  tillage.  About  the  centre,  a  large  brownish  patch 
three  miles  long,  in  the  unblemished  white  of  the  all-surround¬ 
ing  snow,  indicated  a  deep  morass,  which  is  j^erhaps  the  cause 
of  the  ill  reputation  of  this  plain  for  the  deadliest  fever. 
Dashtiarjan  is  well  known,  too,  as  a  hunting-ground  for  lions ; 
and  upon  the  edges  of  this  morass  there  are  said  to  be  a  great 
number  of  wild  hogs.  At  the  foot  of  the  hills  an  armed 
guard  of  the  Telegraph  Service  met  us.  They  had  been  sent 
out  by  the  clerk  and  inspector,  Mr.  Anderson,  who  stood  on 
the  steps  of  his  bungalow  to  receive  us.  His  house  looked 
like  an  island  in  a  polar  sea,  and  the  face  of  this  intelligent 
young  Scotchman,  who  lived  alone  in  this  wild  place,  beamed 
with  the  pleasantest  welcome. 

I  ve  been  expecting  you  for  two  months,  and  longing  for 
you  for  a  fortnight !”  were  almost  his  first  words. 

Ml.  Andeison  gave  us  a  large  empty  roonij  and  partly 
from  his  larder,  and  partly  from  our  own  stores,  a  good  dinner 
■\vas  provided,  of  the  cooking  of  which  Kazem  took  charge. 
Whether  this  habit  is  universal,  or  affects  only  traveling  serv¬ 
ants,  I  can  not  say;  but  we  always  found  that  no  servant, 
even  in  his  master’s  house,  regarded  the  cooking-place,  or  in¬ 
deed  any  function,  as  particularly  and  exclusively  his  own. 
W^hen  we  weie  guests  in  a  strange  house,  even  for  one  night, 
oui  seivants  seemed  to  fall  into  the  work  as  if  they  were  c^uite 
accustomed  to  it.  At  Dashtiarjan,  Kazeni  appeared  as  cook 
and  butler,  as  hopeful  about  his  dishes,  his  soup,  and  his 
stews  as  he  was  when  we  had  no  one  else  to  look  to  upon  the 
road. 

Mr.  Anderson  often  had  to  trust  to  his  rifle  for  supplyinf>* 
his  dinner,  and,  to  judge  from  the  noise  made  at  night,  wild 
beasts  of  all  sorts  seemed  to  be  suffering  hunger  in  the  snow. 


380 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN-. 


A  Persian  who  came  in,  using  an  idiom  I  had  not  heard  be¬ 
fore,  said  that  one  of  these  beasts  had  “eaten  a  bullet,”  which 
Mr.  Anderson  explained  is  the  common  mode  of  saying  that 
any  person  or  animal  has  been  shot.  The  loneliness  of  such  a 
life  as  that  of  this  young  man  is  greater,  and  in  some  respects 
more  trying,  than  I  think  the  Indian  Government  should  call 
upon  any  one  to  endure.  For  months  he  has  no  opportunity 
of  hearing  his  own  language  spoken.  In  winter,  the  road  may 
be  closed  at  any  time  for  weeks  by  snow.  He  lives  surround¬ 
ed  by  wild  beasts,  with  the  semi-savage  pojDulation  of  Dash- 
tiarjan  for  his  only  neighbors.  Mr.  Anderson  seemed  to  be 
fighting  bravely  and  resolutely,  with  the  aid  of  a  small  library 
of  good  books,  against  the  difficulties  of  his  situation ;  but  we 
thought  that  the  real  trials  of  such  an  existence  are  not  sufii- 
ciently  estimated  by  his  superiors,  who  would  do  well  so  to 
arrange  their  stations  that  not  less  than  two  European  offi¬ 
cers  should  inhabit  the  same  place. 

Mr.  Anderson  and  one  of  his  tofanghees  rode  out  with  us 
in  the  morning  along  the  plain  of  Dashtiarjan,  when  the  drifts 
of  snow  were  in  some  places  ten  or  fifteen  feet  deep.  The 
work  of  finding  and  following  the  shallowest  depths  made 
our  path  very  circuitous.  We  skirted  the  morass,  and  in 
about  two  hours  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  Ghooloo-Kojeh 
Pass,  a  hill  covered  with  scrubby  trees,  the  trunks  of  which 
were  deep  in  snow.  From  among  the  trees,  and  from  the 
overtowering  height,  we  heard  the  shouts  of  muleteers  urging 
their  caravans  through  the  snow.  Mr.  Anderson  left  us  when 
we  began  the  ascent.  He  had  no  opportunity  for  the  use  of 
his  rifle,  though  there  were  foot-marks  of  wild  beasts  in  every 
direction.  ‘No  one  seemed  to  fear  or  to  anticipate  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  a  lion,  though  the  district  we  were  joassing  through 
is  a  famous  haunt,  and  it  does  now  and  then  happen  that  a 
villager  of  Dashtiarjan  falls  the  prey  of  a  hunted  or  hungry 
lion. 


A  LION  IN  THE  PATH. 


381 


It  was  exactly  at  this  point  that  Mr.  Blanforcl,  F.R.S.,  the 
distinguished  naturalist  attached  to  the  Persian  Boundary 
Commission,  met  with  a  lioness,  in  March,  186V.  His  own 
account  of  the  adventure  is  very  spirited  and  interesting:^ 
“It  was  not  till  sunset  that  I  entered  the  oak  forest  south  of 
Dashtiarjan,  with  five  miles  of  steep  mountain  road  before 
me.  Contrary  to  my  usual  habit,  I  carried  no  gun,  being  un¬ 
armed,  with  the  exception  of  a  Colt’s  revolver  of  the  smallest 
size.  I  was  mounted,  I  may  say,  on  a  bay  Arab,  fifteen  hands 
high.  I  had  crossed  a  tiny  rivulet,  said  to  be  a  favorite 
drinking- place  of  lions,  and  where,  indeed,  I  had  often  seen 
their  foot -prints,  and  had  just  begun  the  ascent  of  the  hill 
by  a  path  covered  with  loose  bowlders,  when  a  tawny  shape 
moved  noiselessly  out  of  the  trees  some  thirty  yards  in  front. 
Whether  my  horse  stopped,  or  I  pulled  him  up,  I  do  not 
know,  but  there  we  stood ;  the  lioness,  for  it  was  evidently  a 
lady,  gazing  at  us,  motionless,  but  for  a  gentle  waving  of  the 
tail,  and  the  horse  and  I  looking  straight  at  her.  I  mentally 
execrated  my  folly  at  not  having  brought  a  gun,  for  a  fairer 
shot  it  was  impossible  to  imagine.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few 
seconds,  thinking  it  time  to  end  the  interview,  I  cracked  my 
hunting-whip  and  gave  a  loud  shout,  to  intimate  to  her  lady¬ 
ship  that  she  had  better  clear  out,  never  dreaming  for  a  mo¬ 
ment  that  lion  or  tiger  would  have  the  courage  to  attack  a 
man  on  horseback. 

“To  ray  astonishment,  instead  of  sneaking  back  into  the 
forest,  as  I  expected,  she  deliberately  charged  us  down  hill, 
and  sprung  at  the  horse’s  throat.  Whether  from  miscalcula¬ 
tion  of  the  distance  through  the  unevenness  of  the  ground,  or 
from  my  jerking  the  horse’s  head  up  with  the  curb,  I  can  not 
say,  but  she  missed  her  spring,  and  came  down  under  my 
right  stirrup.  With  a  good-sized  pistol  I  could  have  broken 


*  “Eastern  Persia,”  vol.  ii.,  p.  31. 


382 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


her  spine,  as  she  stood  bewildered  for  a  moment ;  but  to  fire 
a  bullet  hardly  bigger  than  a  pea,  with  only  a  few  grains  of 
powder  behind  it,  into  the  loose  skin  of  a  lioness,  would  have 
been  folly ;  so  I  stuck  in  the  spurs,  with  the  intention  of  mak¬ 
ing  tracks  as  fast  as  the  nature  of  the  ground  would  allow. 
But  the  poor  horse  was  paralyzed  with  fear;  not  an  inch 
would  he  budge,  till  the  lioness,  recovering  from  her  surprise, 
made  a  swift  half-circle,  and  attacked  us  from  behind ;  not 
leaping  on  the  horse’s  back  with  all  fore  legs,  as  is  so  often 
represented  in  pictures  of  Persian  sporting,  but  rearing  on 
her  hind  legs  and  embracing  the  horse’s  stern  with  her  fore 
paws,  while  trying  to  lay  hold  of  his  flesh  with  her  teeth. 
As  may  be  supposed,  I  lost  no  time  in  jumping  off,  with  no 
other  damage  than  a  tear  in  my  strong  cord  breeches,  and  a 
slight  scratch  in  the  thighs.  Directly  the  horse  felt  himself 
relieved  of  my  weight,  he  reared  and  plunged  violently,  send- 
ins:  me  head  over  heels  among  the  stones  in  one  direction, 
and  the  lioness  in  the  other.  Expecting  the  brute  to  be  on 
me  at  once,  I  pulled  out  my  miserable  little  pistol,  and  picking 
myself  up  as  soon  as  possible,  looked  about  me.  There  stood 
the  lioness,  not  five  yards  off,  sublimely  indifferent  to  me  and 
my  proceedings,  waving  her  tail  and  gazing  intently  at  the 
horse,  which  had  trotted  twenty  yards  down  the  road.  She 
made  a  few  swift  steps  after  him,  when  I  fired  a  couple  of 
shots  over  her  head,  hoping  to  drive  her  off.  The  only  effect 
was  to  start  the  horse  off*  again,  when  the  lioness  again 
charged  him  from  behind,  and,  clinging  to  his  quarters,  both 
disappeared  among  the  trees. 

So  far  I  had  had  no  time  to  feel  much  fear,  but  as  soon 
as  the  source  of  danger  was  no  longer  visible  my  nerves  be¬ 
gan  to  get  somewhat  shaky.  Perhaj)s  I  ought  to  be  ashamed 
to  say  that  I  did  not  lose  much  time  in  ensconcing  mj'-self  in 
the  branches  of  a  convenient  oak  some  twenty  feet  from  the 
ground.  A  few  minutes  at  that  secure  altitude  sufficed  to 


A  WOUNDED  HORSE. 


383 


1  estoro  luy  nerves  soniewhat,  and  I  reflected  that  there  were 
the  regulation  three  courses  open  to  me :  to  stay  where  I  was, 
to  go  forward,  or  to  go  back.  The  first  involved  spending  a 
March  night  on  the  top  of  a  tree,  the  bottom  of  which  was 
seven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea;  and  I  hate  cold.  The  sec¬ 
ond  presented  the  not  more  agreeable  prospect  of  a  five-mile 
walk  over  a  villainous  road  through  the  forest,  with  the 
chance  of  meeting  more  lions  without  a  horse  to  take  off 
their  attention ;  moreover,  my  holster  and  saddle-bags  con¬ 
tained  valuables ;  and  even  if  the  steed  were  killed,  I  mio’ht 
recover  these  by  prompt  action.  I  therefore  made  up  my 
mind  to  follow  the  horse  and  -his  enemy,  and,  as  the  shades 
of  night  were  fast  gathering  around  me,  lost  no  time  about 
it.  Half  a  mile  down  the  road  I  found  my  unfortunate  steed, 
bleeding  fast  from  a  wound  in  his  quarter,  and  still  in  such  a 
state  of  terror  that  he  declined  to  let  me  approach  him. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  drive  him  out  of 
the  forest  into  the  plain,  which  was  not  many  hundred  yards 
off,  and  to  walk  on  to  the  nearest  village  for  assistance. 
This  was  the  little  walled  hamlet  of  Kaleh-Mushir,  a  mile  or 
so  off,  which  I  reached  without  mishap,  save  an  alarm  from 
a  herd  of  pigs,  which  charged  past  me  toward  the  lake  as  if  a 
lion  were  after  them. 

single  family  tenanted  Kaleh-Mushir  during  the  win¬ 
ter.  From  them  I  got  a  little  acorn-bread  and  dates.  Ho 
bribe  w’ould  induce  the  man  to  come  out  with  me  that  nioht 
with  torches  to  find  the  horse;  but  I  found  him  the  next 
morning  at  day-break,  after  a  night  made  sleepless  by  the 
most  vigorous  fleas  I  have  ever  met.  The  poor  brute  was 
grazing  quietly  in  the  plain,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  caught 
without  difficulty.  Although  his  quarters  and  flanks  were 
scored  in  every  direction  with  claw-marks,  only  one  wound 
had  penetrated  the  flesh,  and  this  to  a  depth  of  two  inches, 
making  as  clean  an  incision  as  if  cut  with  a  razor.  This  I 


384 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sewed  up,  and  in  a  week  the  horse  was  as  well  as  ever, 
though  he  bore  the  scars  of  his  adventure  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  It  is,  perhaps,  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  distance  apart 
of  the  scratches  made  by  the  two  outer  claws  of  each  stroke 
with  the  paws  was  between  fourteen  and  fifteen  inches.” 

When  we  met  the  caravans,  whose  noises  we  had  heard 
upon  the  hill  where  Mr,  Blanford  had  had  this  encounter,  the 
difficulty  of  passing  presented  itself  as  serious.  Our  soldiers, 
after  the  manner  of  their  kind,  began  to  bully  the  poor  mule¬ 
teers,  and  to  force  the  donkeys  into  the  deep  snow.  The 
shoutiiig  was  tremendous,  and  the  mules  and  donkeys  vied 
with  each  other  in  obstinacy,  some  of  them  resolving  that,  at 
all  costs,  their  loads  should  graze  my  shins.  Three  or  four 
times  on  the  pass  we  had  a  battle  of  this  sort,  in  which,  at 
last,  the  inconvenience  was  arranged  pretty  equally,  each  car¬ 
avan  taking  turn  with  the  other  in  plunging  through  the 
deep  snow.  When  we  got  clear  of  the  jungle,  we  could  look 
back  over  all  the  plain  of  Dashtiarjan;  but  the  path  ascended 
yet  far  higher  to  the  top  of  Mount  Perizan  (the  Old  Wom¬ 
an)  ;  and  when  at  last,  after  much  toil,  we  gained  that  ele¬ 
vation,  the  sowars  and  gholams  threw  up  their  arms  and 
screamed  with  delight.  I  had  no  need  to  ask  the  cause  of 
their  rejoicing.  In  a  moment  a  strange  transformation  had 
taken  place  in  the  jirospect.  For  weeks  our  eyes  had  found 
no  repose  from  the  glare  of  the  snow ;  for  weeks  we  had  seen 
none  but  a  snow-covered  landscape.  Here,  in  a  moment,  the 
scene  was  shifted  as  if  by  magic.  From  the  top  of  the  Peri¬ 
zan  Mountain  we  looked  upon  valleys  brown  upon  the  sides 
and  green  upon  the  level  plain.  We  had  nearly  done  with 
frost ;  but  we  had  the  worst  part  of  the  road  before  us. 

There  is  no  portion  of  the  way  through  Persia  more  pict¬ 
uresque  than  the  half  dozen  miles  from  the  Perizan  to  the 
caravanserai  at  Mian-kotul.  This  word  “  kotul  ”  is  only  met 
with  between  Shiraz  and  Bushire.  Between  those  two  places 


VIEW  OF  MIAN-KOTUL. 


38d 


there  are  three  “  kotuls  ” — of  which  the  first  is  the  Kotul 
Perizan.  The  word  is  one  of  terror  to  the  traveler,  for  it 
appears  to  signify  a  road  the  most  difiScult  and  dangerous 
which  it  is  possible  to  conceive — a  path  upon  a  mountain’s 
side,  sometimes  upon  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  at  others  upon 
a  descent  so  rapid  as  to  render  riding  impossible.  But  al¬ 
ways  upon  the  kotuls  the  path  is  beset  with  stones,  so  num¬ 
berless  and  awkward  that  horse  and  man  pause  at  almost  ev¬ 
ery  footstep  to  consider  where  the  next  advance  may  be  most 
safely  made. 

If  one  rides  down  a  kotul,  as  we  did  at  Perizan,  a  feeling 
of  recklessness  soon  sets  in.  When  at  any  step  a  fracture  of 
the  skull  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  one  ceases  after  the  first  half- 
hour  to  think  much  of  the  danger.  We  passed  corners  where 
mule  and  merchandise  are  sometimes  lost  by  a  fall  from  the 
precipice  into  the  stony  valley  beneath.  But  the  beauty  of 
the  scene  culminated  at  a  point  where  a  single  peak  of  rock 
rises  seven  hundred  feet  from  the  centre  of  the  valley,  and 
stands,  gray  and  jagged,  with  large  birds  flying  about  its 
summit.  We  might  have  thought  it  inaccessible  but  for  the 
evidence  of  conquest  upon  the  topmost  rock,  where  a  tele¬ 
graph-post  was  fixed  supporting  wires,  which  at  great  height 
spanned  the  valley  on  each -side  of  this  precipitous  elevation. 

Another  remarkable  view,  which  in  words  can  be  but  poor¬ 
ly  painted,  is  that  which  meets  the  eye  after  passing  this  eyrie 
of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph.  We  were  slowly  descending 
a  deep,  wide  valley,  from  the  hollow  of  which  we  were  still 
raised  three  or  four  thousand  feet.  On  the  farthest  side  ran 
a  chain  of  mountains,  their  summits  appearing  to  cross  the 
horizon  in  almost  a  level  line.  Like  a  great  ridge  or  furrow, 
these  mountains  crossed  our  road  from  north  to  south;  and 
about  half-way  down,  in  the  slow  descent  we  were  making 
through  the  scrubby  jungle  which  clothes  the  western  side 
of  Perizan,  upon  a  projecting  platform  of  rock,  lay  the  cara- 

17 


386 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


vanserai  of  Mian-kotul  (the  middle  of  the  kotul).  We  were 
so  high  above  it  that  we  could  see  nothing  but,  as  it  were,  the 
ground-plan  of  the  building;  the  mules  moving  like  specks 
from  side  to  side  of  the  yard,  the  roof  of  the  surrounding 
stables  like  a  line ;  the  whole  caravanserai  but  a  spot  in  the 
immensity  of  the  prospect. 


FILTHINESS  OF  THE  CARAVANSERAIS. 


387 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Mian  -  kotul  Caravanserai.  —  Tofanghees  on  Guard.  —  Feuds  between  Vil¬ 
lagers. — Kotul  Dochter. — Traveling  on  the  Kotul. — The  Mushir-el-Mulk. 
— Lake  Famoor. — Encampment  of  Eeliats. — Ruins  of  Ancient  Persia. — 
Plain  of  Kazeroon. — Songs  of  Persian  Soldiers. — Kazeroon. — Anniversary 
of  Houssein’s  Death. — “Ah,  Houssein!” — Fanatical  Exercises. — Orange 
Gardens. — The  Sheik  of  Kazeroon. — Plain  of  Kazeroon. — Attack  on  Ma¬ 
jor  Napier's  Caravan. — Village  of  Kamaridj. — Plain  of  Khan-i-Takhte. — 
Hospitality  in  Persia. — Kotul  Maloo. — A  Difficult  Path. — Daliki  River. — 
Arabs  in  Persia. — Palm-leaf  Huts. — A  Loop-holed  Bedroom. — Petrole¬ 
um  at  Daliki. — Barasjoon. — Rifle  Practice. — Indian  Officers  in  Persia. — 
Functions  of  Political  Resident. — Sowars  from  Bushire. — Caravanserai 
at  Ahmedy. — Arrival  of  Captain  Fraser. — The  Mashillah*. — A  Wet  Day’s 
Ride. — Bushire. 

The  caravanserai  at  Mian-kotul  was  no  better  and  no  worse 
than  others.  A  black  arch  ten  feet  by  eight,  with  no  win¬ 
dows,  opening  by  a  door-way  in  which  a  carpet  was  the  only 
screen,  upon  a  stone  platform  raised  about  three  feet  above 
a  yard  full  of  mules  and  asses,  some  of  them  knee -deep  in 
the  dirt  of  the  place,  is  not  a  very  charming  residence.  For 
the  last  time,  the  night  was  cold  and  frosty  ;  the  next  day  we 
were  to  descend  more  than  five  thousand  feet  into  a  land  of 
palm-trees  and  orange  groves,  where  the  raggedness  of  the 
people  would  look  less  wretched  and  pitiful,  and  where  pov¬ 
erty  would  lose  much  of  its  misery.  Kazem  was  delighted  at 
his  own  accomplishment,  when,  under  my  direction,  he  turned 
out  a  dish  of  eggs  and  bacon ;  but  looking  at  the  slices  of  the 
forbidden  meat  (which  had  been  exported  from  the  United 
Kingdom  by  a  merchant  of  Shiraz),  he  laughed,  and  said,  Xo 
Iran  man  eat.”  His  bright  eyes  beamed  with  pleasure  at  the 


388  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

coming  change  of  climate,  though  he  grew  more  and  more  ap¬ 
prehensive  as  to  the  safety  of  the  road.  “  Very  bad  robbers,” 
he  said,  in  an  interval  of  cookery,  pointing  forward  on  our 
road  to  Bushire.  Like  a  prudent  man,  he  had  turned  the 
heap  of  silver  which  represented  his  wages  and  allowances 
into  paper  at  Shiraz.  Mr.  Odling  had  kindly  taken  the  silver, 
and  telegraphed  the  amount  to  Kazem’s  credit  in  Teheran,  so 
that  of  this  money  he  could  not  be  robbed.  The  transaction 
had  given  much  ease  to  Kazem’s  mind. 

Outside  the  caravanserai  of  Mian-kotul,  the  way  to  Bushire 
descends  through  a  grove  of  trees  to  a  small  plain,  also  cov¬ 
ered  with  stunted  oaks  and  some  growth  of  under-wood. 

We  had  advanced  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  into  this  wood, 
when  there  suddenly  appeared  seven  wild-looking  men,  each 
armed  with  a  gun  and  a  long  knife.  They  might  be  robbers 
or  friends ;  I  really  could  not  tell  which,  as  we  approached 
them.  That  they  were  waiting  for  us  was  quite  clear.  With¬ 
out  a  word,  they  surrounded  the  caravan ;  and  presently,  with¬ 
out  appearing  curious  as  to  their  quality,  I  gathered  from 
Kazem  that  they  were  men  living  in  the  neighborhood  who 
proposed  to  accompany  us  through  part  of  our  way  to  Kaze- 
roon  as  an  extra  guard  for  our  greater  security.  Several  of 
them  went  on  before,  dispersed  like  sharp-shooters,  in  the 
wood.  Sometimes  they  fired  at  birds,  but  I  think  none  fell  to 
their  aim.  After  walking  about  four  miles  to  the  centre  of 
a  small  plain  below  the  kotul,  they  gathered  round  me  and 
made  “  salaam,”  at  the  same  time  asking  for  money. 

It  struck  me  that  there  could  not  be  very  great  difference 
between  declared  robbery  and  a  request  which  was  so  much 
like  a  demand,  made  by  seven  armed  men,  two  of  whom  had 
their  hands  upon  my  saddle.  However,  they  were  satisfied 
with  a  small  present,  and,  before  dismissing  them,  I  asked  why 
they  wished  to  leave  us  in  a  part  of  the  plain  where,  if  their 
presence  was  at  all  useful,  it  was  certainly  most  desirable. 


KOTUL  DOCHTER.  ’  389 

They  told  me  they  could  not  go  any  farther,  because  they 
were  ‘‘  at  war  ”  with  the  men  of  the  next  village.  That  led 
to  another  exj)lanation,  in  which  Kazem  and  the  charvodar 
joined.  From  this  it  appeared  that  in  the  parts  of  Persia 
south  of  Shiraz  there  are,  as  a  rule,  feuds  existing  between 
village  and  village,  arising  in  the  first  place  from  some  dispute, 
agricultural  or  matrimonial,  between  two  men,  and  having  a 
fatal  result.  The  friends  of  the  murdered  man  have  then  to 
undertake  the  sacred  duty  of  revenge.  Any  one  of  them  will, 
at  sight,  shoot  or  stab  in  cold  blood  any  one  of  the  relations 
of  the  murderer,  or,  perhaps*  more  correctly,  the  man-slayer. 
This  homicidal  disposition  ultimately  spreads  to  the  villagers 
on  each  side,  and  the  feud  thus  becomes  a  war  between  village 
and  village. 

In  the  South  of  Persia  we  never  saw  a  man  or  a  boy  un¬ 
armed.  The  donkey-drivers  carried  long  guns  slung  at  their 
backs ;  the  peasants  who  were  scratching  the  earth  in  patch¬ 
es  with  wooden  plows  were  armed  in  the  same  way,  and  most 
of  them  carried,  in  addition,  a  long  sword-knife  in  their  gir¬ 
dle.  Every  man,  in  fact,  was  a  tofanghee ;  and  one  of  the 
traveler’s  difficulties  is  to  get  rid  of  those  men  who  spring 
up  at  the  sight  of  a  caravan  from  the  bushes  or  stones,  and 
are  ready  to  be  paid  guards,  or  to  rernain  in  something  very 
like  the  attitude  of  robbers  if  no  money  is  forthcoming.  If 
we  had  not  had  our  two  sowars,  we  should  possibly  have  had 
trouble  with  these  tofanghees  of  Mian-kotul. 

At  the  end  of  the  plain,  a  concealed  outlet  over  a  low  eleva¬ 
tion  led  us  to  the  summit  of  the  Kotul  Dochter  (the  Daughtei- 
kotul).  Four  tofanghees  joined  us  at  this  point;  and  when 
we  were  obliged  to  dismount,  owing  to  the  difficulties  of  the 
road,  we  found  them  useful  in  getting  our  horses  down  the 
kotul.  If  they  had  really  been  robbers,  instead  of  men  with 
perhaps  a  tendency  in  that  direction,  they  could  have  chosen 
no  more  satisfactory  place  for  attack.  ISTo  horse  can  make 


390 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


more  than  two  miles  an  hour  over  a  kotul.  One  might  more 
easily  try  to  trot  or  gallop  over  the  lava  of  Vesuvius  than 
upon  the  stones  of  a  kotul ;  and  of  all  the  kotuls,  the  “  Doch- 
ter  ”  is  by  far  the  steepest  and  most  ditficult.  No  one  at¬ 
tempts  to  ride  upon  the  Kotul  Dochter.  It  is  a  way,  partly 
natural,  partly  built,  and  partly  hewed,  in  the  side  of  a  precip¬ 
itous  rock  about  two  thousand  feet  high. 

Half  an  hour’s  labor  by  the  small  strength  of  our  caravan 
would  have  closed  it  altogether.  With  stones  alone  a  dozen 
strong  men  could  defend  the  almost  perpendicular  zigzag 
against  a  host.  Such  “  gates  ”  are  a  security  to  a  country ; 
but  what  a  high-road  for  the  commerce  of  Persia !  When 
one  thinks  that  every  piece  of  Manchester  goods  passing  to 
the  markets  of  Shiraz  and  Ispahan  has  to  be  carried  upon  a 
mule,  stumbling  and  slipping,  toiling  up  these  rude  stairs  by 
a  path  so  difficult  that  camels  are  not  employed,  it  is  easy  to 
see  the  advantage  of  Russia,  who  sends  her  manufactures  by 
Avay  of  Tabriz  and  Resht.  The  Mushir,  the  vizier  of  the  Fir¬ 
man  Firma,  who  has  made  himself  rich  by  the  subordinate 
government  of  the  province  of  Fars,  has,  let  it  be  said  to  his 
credit,  done  much,  by  the  erection  of  retaining-walls,  to  render 
the  Kotul  Dochter  less  dangerous.  Many  were  the  loads  of 
goods,  and  many  the  mules,  which  were  dashed  to  pieces  be¬ 
fore  the  improvement  of  this  ladder  of  stone  by  the  Mushir. 

But  the  Mushir-el-Mulk,  as  this  functionary  was  called,  has, 
I  hear,  since  we  left  Persia,  met  the  fate  of  all  energetic  rulers 
in  that  countiy.  For  alleged  offenses,  perhaps  for  the  high 
crime  of  getting  rich  and  failing  to  share  his  profits  with  the- 
Shah  and  the  Imperial  Government,  the  Mushir-el-Mulk  has,  I 
am  told  upon  high  official  authority,  been  summoned  to  Tehe¬ 
ran,  where  he  has  received  “  the  sticks,”  has  been  compelled 
to  make  a  large  disbursement,  and  has  been  formally  deprived 
of  the  profitable  position  he  held  as  Grand  Farmer-general 
of  the  province  of  Shiraz. 


ENCAMPMENT  OP  EELIATS. 


391 


Until  we  saw  the  Kotul  Dochter,  we  had  not  fully  realized 
why  it  was  not  possible  for  a  takht-i-rawan  to  pass  that  way. 
In  the  corkscrew  windings  of  the  Kotul  Dochter,  there  was 
at  times  scarcely  room  for  the  body  of  a  mule ;  and  though 
we  followed  closely,  one  almost  upon  the  heels  of  the  other, 
yet  the  leading  horse  of  our  caravan  was  sometimes  a  couple 
of  hundred  feet  below  the  rear-guard.  When  we  turned  our 
eyes  from  the  rock  w^e  were  descending  by  a  sort  of  irregular 
stone  ladder,  two  thousand  feet  long,  we  looked  over  a  fertile 
plain — a  tender  green,  where  there  were  patches  of  young 
wheat,  set  here  and  there  with  groves  of  palms,  which  seemed 
to  be  the  only  trees ;  and  to  the  left  lay  the  shallow,  tranquil 
waters  of  Lake  Famoor.  It  was  the  5  th  of  February ;  and 
the  rose-bushes  beside  the  stony  path  upon  the  spur  of  the 
mountain  which  led  from  the  foot  of  the  Kotul  Dochter  to 
the  plain  were  gay  with  blossoms.  These  seemed  to  welcome 
our  arrival  from  the  snow,  which  for  nearly  fifty  days  had 
been  always  under  our  eyes.  A  river  runs  from  the  lake 
through  the  plain  ;  and  beside  it  on  the  greensward,  the  past¬ 
urage  of  which  belonged  to  any  man,  was  an  encampment  of 
the  much  dreaded  Eeliats,  their  low  tents  of  goat’s-hair  cloth 
stretched  on  sticks,  in  which  only  a  year-old  baby  could  stand 
upright — reminding  us  of  the  very  similar  abodes  of  Bedouin 
Arabs  in  Northern  Africa. 

At  the  point  where  the  path  to  Kazeroon  is  at  last  level, 
and  quite  clear  of  the  mountains,  there  are  some  interesting 
ruins  of  ancient  Persia.  By  these  we  dismounted,  and  enjoy¬ 
ed  our  luncheon  in  a  genial  climate.  The  ruins  are  those  of 
a  tomb  or  a  temple,  and  their  interest  centres  in  a  large  bass- 
relief  carved  upon  the  smoothed  face  of  the  overhanging  rock. 
A  monarch,  heavily  bewigged  with  false  hair,  in  the  fashion 
of  ancient  Persia,  and  as  marvelously  bearded,  is  seated  with 
a  lion  before  him,  his  chair  of  state  encircled  by  attendants. 
In  front  of  this  work  there  are  the  ruins  of  an  inclosure,  in 


392 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN^. 


which  we  lingered  until  it  was  necessary  to  get  on  over  the 
l^lain  to  the  town  of  Kazeroon. 

We  had  passed  in  three  hours  from  winter  to  summer; 
my  Cabui  sheep-skin  coat  was  no  longer  endurable.  The  way 
was  level  and  grassy.  Birds  fluttered  in  the  air ;  the  graceful 
foliage  of  the  palm-trees  waved  about  us ;  the  swarthy,  Arab- 
like  Eeliats,  who  had  migrated  from  the  plains  of  Ispahan  and 
Shiraz  on  the  coming  of  winter,  were  here  tending  their  flocks, 
every  one  of  them  with  a  gun  at  his  back  and  a  knife  in  his 
belt ;  and  in  the  far  distance,  where  the  palm-trees  were  con¬ 
gregated  in  dense  groves,  lay  Kazeroon,  in  which  there  is 
an  office  of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph,  kept  by  an  Arme¬ 
nian,  who  we  knew  was  prepared  to  receive  us.  Hassan  and 
Abdullah,  our  sowars,  were  singing  in  their  own  way,  taking 
turns  in  the  monotonous  dirge,  which  is  the  only  singing 
voice  of  the  Mohammedan  nations,  when  suddenly  Abd-ullah 
shouted  in  Persian  the  word  for  “  antelope.”  In  the  twink¬ 
ling  of  an  eye — to  say  a  moment  would  seem  an  exa<rireration 
— their  horses  were  at  a  gallop,  and  they  were  chasing  furi¬ 
ously  over  a  patch  of  wheat.  Away  they  galloped,  so  far  as 
to  be  almost  out  of  sight.  First,  Hassan  fired  without  slack¬ 
ening  speed ;  then  Abd-ullah  shot ;  but  there  were  no  results, 
and  presently  they  returned,  and  resumed  their  doleful  sono*. 
which  was  a  somewhat  stupid  rhyme  about  the  charms  of  an 
imaginary  lady,  repeated  again  and  again,  without  the  slight¬ 
est  apj)arent  consciousness,  interest,  or  weariness.  Sometimes 
the  songs  of  Persians,  delivered  all  in  the  same  tone,  are  in 
language  highly  indecorous.  Among  the  Turks  as  well  as 
the  Persians,  it  is  observed  with  surprise  by  Europeans,  that, 
even  in  the  superior  classes,  talk  is  habitually  indecent,  and 
that  this  immoral  flow  is  not  arrested  by  the  presence  of 
women  and  boys.  The  Vizier  of  the  Zil-i-Sultan,  who  called 
upon  mein  Ispahan,  a  man  of  great  position,  and  of  an  ability 
rare  in  Persia,  invited  me  to  an  entertainment  at  his  house, 


ANNIVERSAEY  OF  HOUSSEIn’S  DEATH. 


393 


which  I  was  too  ill  to  attend.  Mr.  Bruce,  the  missionary, 
went,  and  told  me  on  his  return  how  he  had  been  shocked  at 
the  filthiness  of  the  general  conversation  carried  on,  especially 
by  the  host  and  father,  in  presence  of  his  youthful  sons — two 
boys  whom  I  had  seen  riding  in  Ispahan,  attended,  after  the 
manner  of  people  of  their  class,  by  a  dozen  mounted  servants. 

It  may  be  that  Kazeroon  appears  more  beautiful  on  ap¬ 
proaching  it  from  the  snowy  mountains  than  in  coming  from 
the  greater  heat  of  Bushire.  To  us  it  seemed  the  very  ideal 
of  an  Oriental  town.  There  were  orange  gardens  with  the 
golden  fruit  upon  the  dark-green  leaves ;  there  was  scarcely  a 
house  which  was  not  shaded  by  a  palm-tree.  The  inhabitants 
live,  for  the  most  part,  on  dates.  There  were  mosques  with 
domes  of  mud,  and  minarets  of  sun-baked  bricks.  The  pov¬ 
erty  of  the  people,  the  squalor  of  their  huts  (many  of  them 
made  of  mats  hung  on  poles),  all  this  was  as  evident  as  on 
the  hio'her  and  colder  reGrions.  But  nobod v  shivered  or  look- 
ed  pinched  and  hungry.  Two  pounds’  weight  of  dates  makes 
a  good  meal,  and  can  be  bought  for  about  the  value  of  a  half¬ 
penny  in  English  money.  We  were  delighted  with  the  prom¬ 
ise  of  rest  as  we  rode  into  Kazeroon,  and  by  no  means  sor¬ 
ry  when  the  charvodar  rode  up  with  Kazem,  and,  salaaming, 
begged  as  a  favor  that  we  would  not  travel  the  next  day,  as 
it  was  the  day  of  Houssein’s  death,  and  they  wished  to  keep 
the  solemn  festival  in  Kazeroon. 

A  tofanghee  from  the  telegraph-office  had  met  us  about  a 
league  from  the  town,  and  now  ran  forward  to  announce  our 
arrival  to  his  master,  who  received  us  very  kindly,  placed  a 
large  empty  room  at  our  disposal,  and,  having  done  this,  set 
himself  to  telegraph  the  news  of  our  arrival  to  north  and 
south.  We  were  out  betimes  in  the  morning,  to  see  the  do¬ 
ings  of  the  people  of  Kazeroon  in  honor  of  the  lamented 
Houssein.  From  the  court -yard  of  the  principal  mosque 
we  heard  the  continuous  cry,  “Ah,  Houssein !”  “Ah,  Hous- 


394 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sein !”  arising,  and,  standing  in  the  door- way,  saw  the  whole 
place  was  full  of  men,  the  surrounding  roofs  crowded  with 
women  and  children.  Iii  the  centre,  about  fifty  men  had 
formed  themselves  into  a  ring,  holding  each  other’s  hands. 
In  this  formation,  they  expanded  and  contracted  the  circle, 
advancing  and  retreating  with  the  cry  ‘^Ah,  Houssein !” 
uttered  in  the  tone  of  profoundest  grief.  This  was  kept  up 
with  mechanical  regularity  for  about  an  hour.  Then,  when 
every  man’s  brain  was  reeling  with  the  exercise  and  with 
watching  it,  at  a  word  from  their  leader  the  men  sat  down, 
and  each  one  beat  his  bare  breast  with  his  open  palm,  and 
then  clapped  his  hand  upon  his  thigh  with  the  common  cry. 
This,  too,  was  done  with  the  same  precision.  We  left  them 
at  this  work,  and  soon  after  it  was  understood  that  the  two 
parties,  one  holding  that  day  to  be  the  proper  anniversary 
and  the  other  preferring  the  morrow,  were  disposed  to  fight 
over  the  difference.  There  was  some  tumult,  and  the  gov¬ 
ernor  ordered  that  there  was  not  to  be  the  usual  procession 
in  the  streets,  of  which  the  leading  feature  is  the  slashing  of 
their  faces  and  persons  with  knives,  and  the  consequent  stain¬ 
ing  of  their  white  garments  with  blood,  by  the  most  devoted 
mourners  for  Houssein.  The  telegraph  clerk  and  I  went  into 
the  streets  to  see  how  this  order  was  obeyed,  and  had  got  into 
a  narrow  place,  when  we  heard  from  a  hundred  voices  the 
cry  “Ah,  Houssein  !”  coming  toward  us.  We  hurried  to  an 
outlet,  and  reached  an  open  space  just  in  time  to  avoid  a 
rushing  crowd  of  men,  each  one  of  whom  leaped  into  the  air 
as  he  shouted  at  every  step  Ah,  Houssein !”  and  at  the 
same  time  beat  his  inflamed  breast  with  his  hand.  Men  in 
the  condition  of  those  forming  this  crowd  were  virtually  in¬ 
sane  with  frantic  exertion  and  the  continuous  exercise  of  the 
same  movement.  Had  we  met  them  in  the  narrow  way,  we 
should  very  likely  have  been  knocked  over  and  trodden  to 
death.  I  felt  that,  looking  on  as  we  were,  a  single  word  of 


OEANGE  GAKDENS. 


395 


hatred  for  the  infidel  would  have  been  sufficient  for  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  our  lives.  This  production  of  irresponsible  fanaticism 
by  shouts  and  oft-repeated  movement,  by  exercises  such  as 
these,  and  such  as  those  of  dancing  and  howling  dervishes,  is 
as  much  a  part  of  the  recognized  machinery  of  the  Moham¬ 
medan  Church  as  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  and  the  domestic 
fulcrum  obtained  in  the  confessional-box  are  of  the  Roman 
Church. 

From  this  scene  of  noisy  and  dangerous  fanaticism  it  was 
pleasant,  when  we  were  joined  by  my  wife,  to  pass  into  the 
largest  of  the  orange  gardens,  a  grove  of  magnificent  trees, 
most  of  them  more  than  two  hundred  years  old,  and  all  load¬ 
ed  with  fruit.  The  central  path  through  this  orange  garden 
is  a  si"ht  to  be  remembered.  From  the  ruins  of  the  tank  in 
the  centre,  the  surrounding  orange-trees,  the  largest  we  have 
ever  seen,  presented  a  delicious  appearance.  Possibly  there 
would  not  have  been  so  much  fruit  remaining  on  the  branch¬ 
es,  had  the  oranges  not  been  of  the  sour  variety.  We  have 
not  met  with  sweet  oranges  anywhere  in  Persia  as  a  product 
of  the  country.  They  are  imported  from  Baghdad  and  other 
places.  I  can  hardly  suppose  that  the  deficiency  of  Persia  in 
this  respect  is  due  to  want  of  the  proper  climate  or  soil  for 
rij)ening  sweet  oranges.  No  part  of  the  world  would  seem 
better  adapted  for  the  growth  of  oranges  than  the  region 
about  Kazeroon.  At  Bushire  it  may  be  too  hot;  at  Shiraz 
the  winter  may  be  too  severe.  But  Kazeroon,  though  it  is 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  has  the  cli¬ 
mate  of  Seville ;  the  palms  prove  that  the  cold  is  not  severe, 
and  the  corn-fields  that  there  are  abundant  moisture  and 
genial  sunshine.  On  returning  from  the  orange  garden,  we 
met  a  small  crowd,  in  front  of  which  walked  an  old  man  with 
beard  dyed  red.  His  dress  was  rich  ;  he  had  a  huge  ring  of 
silver  upon  his  band,  and  a  heavy  pair  of  spectacles  upon  his 
nose.  He  was  the  religious  Sheik  of  Kazeroon— the  Sheik-ul- 


396  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

Islam  he  would  have  been  called  in  a  capital — the  ecclesias¬ 
tical  mayor  and  judge  of  the  place,  and  the  crowd  was  com¬ 
posed  of  his  retinue  attendants.  The  telegraph  clerk  pre¬ 
sented  me  to  the  old  man,  who  shook  hands,  and  w^elcomed 
us  to  Kazeroon  with  grave  politeness. 

The  weather  was  showery,  and  there  were  signs  that  the 
half  of  the  population  which  did  not  assent  to  the  celebration 
of  the  previous  day  was  preparing  to  realize  its  own  idea  of 
the  anniversary  of  Houssein’s  death  when  we  rode  out  of 
Kazeroon.  I  think  Kazem  favored  the  day  of  our  departure, 
and  the  charvodar  that  after  our  arrival,  as  the  proper  date 
of  this  ceremony.  However,  no  objection  was  made  to  our 
progress,  though  we  passed  through  the  plain  of  Kazeroon, 
of  which  only  a  few  patches  are  cultivated,  under  a  heavy 
shower  of  rain.  There  were  abundant  evidences  of  natural 
fertility  in  the  soil,  which  seemed  to  need  nothing  but  indus¬ 
try  to  be  highly  productive.  At  the  end  of  the  plain,  the 
path  mounted  toward  a  small  caravanserai,  adjoining  which 
was  a  hut  built  of  palm -leaves.  We  had  this  swept  out, 
and  sat  on  the  floor  to  eat  a  luncheon  of  eggs  and  dates,  and 
then,  still  in  the  rain,  rode  up  and  down  among  the  hill-tops 
—though  some  of  the  most  favorite  haunts  of  robbers — un¬ 
til  we  looked  down  upon  another  plain,  that  of  Kamaridj,  in 
the  middle  of  which  stood  the  white  dome  of  some  Moham¬ 
medan  tomb,  and  at  the  farther  end  the  village  in  which  we 
were  to  pass  the  night.  This  was  the  place  where  the  Hon¬ 
orable  Major  Kapier’s  caravan  was  attacked  and  robbed — as 
pretty  a  plain  as  any  in  Persia.  As  we  looked  down  upon 
it  from  the  hills,  there  were  two  herds  of  long-haired  goats, 
the  only  life  upon  the  plain.  The  ground  was  sloppy  with 
the  rain ;  and  the  palm-trees,  under  which  Kamaridj  lay,  were 
visible  for  two  hours  before  we  reached  the  villaire.  That 
which  in  grander  spheres  would  be  called  a  reign  of  terror 
prevails  always  in  Kamaridj  and  the  villages  of  Southern 


K  AM  A  RID  J. 


397 


Fars.  They  are  at  all  times  liable  to  that  which  in  higher 
latitudes  would  be  dignified  with  the  names  of  siege  and 
sack.  Their  efforts  to  win  prosperity  are  blighted  by  the 
musket  of  the  tax-gatherer  and  the  pistol  of  the  robber.  In 
good  and  bad  years  alike,  for  every  one  of  their  palm-trees 
and  their  bullocks  the  peasants  must  pay  a  heavy  charge  to 
the  costly  system  of  misrule  dignified  with  the  name  of  gov¬ 
ernment,  of  which  the  Shah  is  the  head ;  and,  in  bad  years  as 
in  good,  the  robber  urges  his  claim  to  maintenance  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  only  hard-working  class  in  Persia.  For  such 
depredation  the  site  of  Kamaridj  is  most  convenient,  nestled 
under  hills  in  which  there  is  concealment  for  a  troop  from 
the  eyes  of  an  army. 

Kamaridj  was  all  alive  with  excitement  at  the  sight  of  our 
caravan  approaching  over  the  plain.  Two  men,  armed,  of 
course,  ran  out  about  a  mile  to  meet  us ;  and  when  we  en¬ 
tered  not  a  few  of  the  roofs  were  occupied  with  women. 
We  found  a  fairly  good  room  in  Kamaridj ;  and  on  the 
morning  of  February  8th  rode  over  the  hills,  in  a  climate 
which  seemed  perfection,  through  a  country  full  of  the  bud¬ 
ding  luxuriance  of  a  Southern  spring,  to  the  plain  of  Khand- 
Takhte,  in  which  there  were  continuous  groves  of  palm-trees, 
extending  for  miles  an  unbroken  shade.  Our  soldiers  and 
muleteers  sung — not  so  sweetly  as  the  birds — and  the  con¬ 
ductors  of  the  two  or  three  caravans  we  passed  in  the  day’s 
ride  were  smiling  and  talkative.  Kear  a  great  patch  of  palm- 
trees  stood  the  telegraph  -  office,  which  was  to  be  our  stop- 
ping-place  for  the  night.  It  was,  we  knew,  uninhabited,  the 
clerk  having  recently  suffered  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  in  con¬ 
sequence  of  which  he  had  been  removed  by  Mr.  Odling  to 
Shiraz.  A  tofanghee  was  in  charge  of  the  place.  There  was 
something  very  sad,  on  entering  the  rooms,  to  see  the  clock 
stopped,  the  instruments  all  dead  and  dusty,  and  the  necessa¬ 
ries  of  a  European’s  daily  life  lying  about  in  disorder — evi- 


398 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


dences  of  the  suddenness  of  the  attack  by  which  the  greater 
part  of  the  life  of  this  man  had  been  taken  from  him. 

The  simplicity  of  hospitality  in  such  a  country  is  fully  ex¬ 
perienced  in  a  case  of  this  sort.  In  the  presence  of  the  mas¬ 
ter  of  the  house  it  is  very  much  the  same ;  the  reception  of 
visitors  is  devoid  of  nine-tenths  of  the  difficulty  with  which  it 
is  encompassed  at  home.  One  finds  an  empty  room  ;  the  car¬ 
pets  and  furniture  are  taken  from'  the  mules’  backs,  the  prop¬ 
erty  of  the  traveler.  For  all  the  trouble  they  are  at,  he  pays 
the  servants  of  the  house ;  his  own  servants  prepare  and  cook 
his  food,  and  in  the  morning  he  leaves  not  a  trace  of  his  so¬ 
journ. 

We  were  still  eighteen  hundred  feet  above  the  sea.  We 
were  now  to  descend  by  the  Kotul  Maloo  to  Daliki,  where  we 
should  be  but  two  hundred  feet  above  the  line  at  which  our 
ride  was  to  end — the  level  of  the  Persian  Gulf  at  Bushire. 
From  the  plain  of  Khan-i-Takhte  we  looked  back  on  that 
high,  serrated  ridge  of  mountains,  the  other  side  of  wffiich  we 
had  seen  from  the  caravanserai  of  Mian -kotul.  Indeed,  the 
plain  appeared  to  be  locked  on  all  sides  by  mountains,  but  we 
rode  on  toward  the  southern  end,  where  the  path  suddenly 
disclosed  a  steep  descent  upon  the  side  of  an  almost  perpem 
dicular  cliff.  There  has  been  no  building  at  the  Kotul  Maloo. 
Somehow  or  other,  in  the  course  of  years,  the  hoofs  of  mules 
and  the  feet  of  men  have  worn  a  track  from  one  huge  stone 
to  another,  and  a  zigzag  has  been  formed,  which  descends  at 
gradients  of  about  one  in  three,  but  so  unequally  that  every 
step  is  more  or  less  of  a  climb.  Looked  at  from  the  bottom, 
one  would  hardly  suppose  the  piled -up  rocks  of  the  Kotul 
Maloo  to  be  accessible.  It  is  prudent  to  make  some  noise  in 
the  passage,  so  that,  if  a  caravan  is  ascending,  the  mules  may 
be  made  to  stand  aside  in  the  few  places  where  it  is  possible 
for  one  loaded  animal  to  pass  another  with  a  similar  burden. 
At  the  foot  of  the  Kotul  Maloo  the  ravine  widens,  and  there 


DALIKI  EIVEE. 


399 


is  a  splendid  view  in  the  valley  beneath  of  a  river,  the  waters 
of  which  were  rushing  when  we  saw  them,  and  green  with 
the  nauseous  salts  which  they  contain.  To  the  side  of  this 
river  we  gradually  descended  into  a  valley,  through  which  it 
passed  in  a  broad  stream  toward  a  bridge,  which  is  certainly 
the  finest  in  Persia — another  work  of  the  Mushir  who  then 
governed  Pars  in  the  name  of  the  Firman  Firma.  I^ear  this 
bridge,  the  stream,  which  is  known  as  the  Daliki  River,  turn¬ 
ed  abruptly  round  high  rocks,  through  a  southern  outlet  by 
which  we  also  passed,  after  sitting  a  while  near  the  bridge,  in 
a  thick  growth  of  beautiful  ferns,  to  eat  our  luncheon. 

It  would  have  been  utterly  impossible  for  an  unguided 
stranger  to  have  followed  without  error  the  path  by  which  we 
accomplished  the  remainder  of  that  day’s  journey.  It  lay,  un¬ 
marked  because  of  the  hardness  of  the  rocks,  through  a  laby¬ 
rinth  of  hills.  Sometimes  we  forded  the  river,  at  others  pass¬ 
ed  for  a  mile  upon  bowlders  which  seemed  to  bear  no  trace 
of  a  track.  Then  we  left  the  stream,  and,  crossing  a  hill,  en¬ 
tered  upon  an  entirely  new  scene.  Ko  part  of  the  way  from 
Shiraz  was  more  curious  and  fatiguing.  At  last  our  tired 
horses  climbed  a  rounded  hill,  which  was  the  final  elevation. 
From  this  %re  had  a  prospect  over  a  sandy  plain  of  apparent¬ 
ly  illimitable  extent.  We  could  not  see  the  gulf;  but,  in  fact, 
had  our  sight  been  sufficient,  and  the  Persian  belief  in  the 
flatness  of  the  earth  established,  we  might  have  seen  ships 
riding  at  anchor  off  the  town  of  Bushire.  Near  the  foot  of 
this  last  hill  lay  the  village  of  Daliki — a  wild  place,  more  Arab 
than  Persian — the  inhabitants  living  in  huts  made  of  mats  or 
of  palm-leaves.  The  general  plan  of  Daliki,  like  that  of  all 
the  villages  upon  the  plains  around  the  Persian  Gulf,  is  very 
simple.  A  mud-bank  about  a  foot  high  incloses  the  area  of 
each  hut,  and  upon  this  is  made  a  frame-work  of  palm  branch¬ 
es,  covered  or  thatched  with  the  broad  fronds  or  leaves  of  the 
same  tree,  or  with  mats  plaited  with  strips  from  the  palm- 


400 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


leaves.  Daliki  is  environed  with  palm-trees.  The  people  of 
Daliki  have  terrible  blood -feuds  with  neighboring  villages, 
and  suffer  greatly  from  occasional  raids  by  bands  of  robbers 
from  the  mountains.  Major  Champain,  R.E.,  the  Director  of 
the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph,  informs  me  that,  in  passing  Da¬ 
liki  a  month  after  we  staid  in  that  village,  he  saw  two  dead 
bodies  lying  exposed,  those  of  men  slain  by  robbers,  who  were 
still  in  sight,  hastening,  with  their  booty,  into  the  fastnesses 
of  those  hills  by  which  we  approached  the  village.  There  are 
two  huts  in  Daliki  which  have  a  bala-khanah.  Of  one  of 
these  wo  took  possession.  But  the  roofing  over  the  mud- 
stairs  was  so  very  low  that  we  were  obliged  to  hoist  up  some 
things  with  a  cord,  and  to  throw  up  the  smaller  articles  to 
one  of  the  large  holes  intended  for  windows.  The  room  was 
nine  feet  by  twelve,  and  had  loop-holes  on  all  sides,  twenty- 
four  in  number.  The  night  was  not  cold ;  we  could  afford  to 
laugh,  and  call  this  liberal  provision  of  draughts  “  airy.”  At 
times  in  the  night  there  came  through  some  of  the  numerous 
holes  in  our  room  a  smell  which  reminded  me  of  Russian 
Baku,  the  Asiatic  Petrolia  on  the  Caspian — an  odor  of  naph¬ 
tha,  from  the  natural  springs  which  lay  neglected,  and  run¬ 
ning  to  waste,  a  little  to  the  southward  of  the  village. 

By  a  slight  detour  we  visited  these  springs  in  the  morning, 
on  our  way  to  Barasjoon,  the  next  station.  There  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  about  the  quality  or  quantity  of  the  petroleum. 
All  the  streams  around  us  were  colored  and  covered  with  the 
outflow^ ;  but  no  one  attempts  to  make  use  of  it.  There 
may  be  under-ground  a  practically  inexhaustible  supply,  and 
doubtless  Englishmen  would  bo  found  ready  to  sink  wells, 
and  to  engage  in  exportation,  if  it  were  safe  to  deal  with  the 
Persian  Government.  The  wells  would  not  be  more  than  fif¬ 
teen  or  sixteen  miles  from  the  waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf  at 
Sheef,  and  the  price  of  coal  in  India  is  certainly  high  enough 
to  encourage  enterprise  of  this  sort. 


BAEASJOON. 


401 


The  smell  of  petroleum  was  still  on  the  plain  when  we  were 
joined  by  a  number  of  ruffianly-looking  men,  who,  after  walk¬ 
ing  with  us  for  a  mile,  to  my  great  relief  departed  in  the  di¬ 
rection  of  the  mountains.  The  ground  between  Daliki  and 
Baras joon  is  unlevel,  but  not  hilly.  Cultivated  patches,  all 
unfenced,  are  few  and  far  apart.  In  these,  wheat  was  wav¬ 
ing  five  inches  high  around  bushes  which  the  cultivators  had 
not  taken  the  trouble  to  remove.  The  sun  shone  very  hotly 
.  on  the  10th  of  February,  as  we  approached  Barasjoon,  which 
consists  of  a  telegraph-station,  a  caravanserai,  and  a  village. 
Throughout  the  evening  there  was  a  continual  noise  of  firing. 
The  one  amusement  of  the  men  of  these  villages  seems  to  be 
rifle-shooting.  They  are  always  striving  to  improve  them¬ 
selves  as  marksmen,  and  as  nothing  else. '  Their  agriculture 
is  careless ;  their  homes  are  miserable ;  their  food,  for  the 
most  part,  dates  ;  they  are  subject  to  the  most  cruel  tyranny. 
The  governor  collects  his  taxes  from  them  at  the  head  of  an 
irresistible  force ;  their  one  delight  is  to  be  ready  against 
their  neighbors  with  their  rifles.  The  head-man  or  sub-gov¬ 
ernor  of  Barasjoon,  enthusiastic  like  the  rest  in  this  direc¬ 
tion,  was,  we  were  told,  taking  shots  one  evening  not  long 
ago  from  the  roof  of  his  house,  and  was  unable  to  resist  the 
tempting  mark  offered  by  a  harmless  shepherd,  upon  Avhora 
lie  inflicted  a  wound  from  which  the  man  died  in  two  days. 
A  resident  at  Barasjoon  told  me  the  story  was  quite  true ; 
that  the  head-man  killed  the  shepherd  only  because  he  was 
seized  with  a  cruel  desire,  at  sight  of  the  man,  to  have  a  living 
mark  for  his  shot,  and  that  no  punishment  whatever  had  fol¬ 
lowed  this  wanton  murder. 

On  the  morning  following  our  arrival  at  Barasjoon  we  re¬ 
ceived  a  most  welcome  re-enforcement.  We  were  really  de- 

li(>-hted  to  see  the  red  uniforms  and  British  accoutrements  of 
®  . 
two  Bombay  sowars,  who  had  been  sent  to  meet  us  with  a 

letter  of  invitation  and  welcome  by  Colonel  Ross,  the  political 


402 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


resident  at  Bushire.  Perhaps  this  is  as  good  a  place  as  any 
in  which  to  allude  to  the  connection,  amounting  to  something 
like  co-ordinate  authority,  which  has  at  one  time  existed  in 
greater  degree  than  at  present,  but  which  is  still  maintained 
on  the  part  of  the  Foreign  Office  and  the  Government  of 
British  India,  in  Persia.  At  one  time  I  believe  the  Legation 
in  Teheran  was  a  mission  from  the  Indian  Government,  dis¬ 
patched  by  and  maintained  solely  at  the  cost  of  that  Govern¬ 
ment.  At  present  the  Indian  Government  makes,  I  under¬ 
stand,  a  contribution  to  the  cost  of  the  Legation  in  Teheran, 
and  maintains  at  Bushire  a  political  resident,  who  is  protector 
of  the  commerce  of  the  gulf,  and  mediator-general  (backed  by 
a  force  of  gun-boats)  between  the  tribes  upon  the  Arabian 
and  Persian  shoresj  the  object  being  to  secure  safe  and  unre¬ 
stricted  intercourse  between  the  towns  of  the  gulf,  and  free 
communication  from  India  and  Great  Britain  with  the  inlet 
to  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  at  Bussorah  and  up  to  Baghdad. 

The  political  resident  at  Bushire  is  not  subordinate  to  the 
minister  in  Teheran,  and  they  are,  I  should  suppose,  sufficient¬ 
ly  far  removed  to  render  their  occasional  intercourse  free 
from  embarrassment.  The  lines  which  separate  their  author¬ 
ity  are  probably  not  defined.  In  Shiraz,  Mirza  Hassan  Ali 
Khan,  the  British  agent,  told  me  that  in  applying  for  leave  of 
absence,  he  obtained  permission  both  from  Mr.  Thomson  and 
from  Colonel  Ross,  though  the  latter  has  no  connection  with 
the  Foreign  Office,  and  is  an  Indian  officer  on  special  service, 
under  the  orders  of  the  Bombay  Government,  reporting  only 
to  that  Government. 

The  sowars  he  had  kindly  sent  to  meet  us  and  to  conduct 
us  to  the  Residency  were  Sikhs ;  fine  men  on  good  horses, 
wearing  scarlet  turbans,  and  long  tunics  of  the  same  British 
color,  high  jack-boots,  and  armed  with  short  carbine  and  cav¬ 
alry  sword.  I  noticed  they  could  not  make  themselves  un¬ 
derstood  by  our  Persian  sowars  or  servants.  They  had  spent 


CARAVANSERAI  OF  AHMEDY. 


403 


the  night  at  Ahmedy,  and,  after  some  hours’  rest,  their  horses 
were  fresh  enough  to  return  with  us  to  that  caravanserai.  It 
was  a  tedious  ride  upon  almost  a  dead  level  of  damp  sand; 
Avith  small  groves  of  palm-trees  each  a  few  miles  apart.  In 
the  last  hour  when  we  were  in  sight  of  the  caravanserai  of 
Ahmedy,  rain  fell  very  heavily,  which  made  us  arrive  in  great 
discomfort.  But  the  caravanserai  Avas  strong  and  new;  it 
Avas  possible  to  haA^e  a  fire ;  there  was  not  more  than  one  open 
hole  in  our  room,  and,  when  the  sky  cleared,  Ave  spread  our 
Avet  clothes  upon  poles  on  the  roof,  and  enjoyed  the  lookout 
from  that  place  of  vantage.  The  scene  Avas  one  of  life  near 
the  tropics  Avith  an  arctic  background.  There  Avere  behind 
us  the  brown  hills  over  Daliki,  and  above  these  the  high 
snoAvy  ranges  Ave  had  passed  through  from  Shiraz.  All  around 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  caravanserai  Avas  a 
leA'el  of  broAvn  sand,  which  met  the  shallow  AA'aters  of  the  gulf 
at  an  almost  invisible  distance.  A  stream  beset  Avith  palm- 
trees  ran  near,  and  toAvard  this  our  string  of  mules  Avas  being 
led  out  to  Avater  after  the  remoA^al  of  their  loads.  In  this  sea 
of  sand  the  rectangular  walls  of  the  caravanserai  Avere  the 
only  interruption.  It  may  strike  the  reader,  as  it  did  myself, 
that  the  panorama,  though  remarkable  and  thoroughly  Ori¬ 
ental,  Avas  one  which  could  be  painted  Avith  little  liability  to 
error,  even  from  these  few  and  imperfect  Avords  of  descrip¬ 
tion. 

Over  the  sand  from  the  direction  of  Bushire  there  came 
galloping  a  group  of  Avhite  horses.  The  new  arrival  was. 
Captain  Fraser,  assistant  political  resident  at  Bushire,  Avho 
Avas  out  on  a  sporting  expedition,  attended  by  tAVO  soAvars, 
comrades  of  those  who  had  joined  our  caravan,  and  two  sei’A'- 
ants.  From  his  arch  in  the  caravanserai  he  sent  his  card  to 
our  arch  ;  and  shortly  afterAvard  I  paid  him  a  visit.  He  had 
come  out  on  a  shooting  expedition,  and,  Avhen  I  left  him,  Ave 
received  a  present  than  which  nothing  could  have  seemed 


404 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN’. 


more  delightful  and  acceptable.  One  of  his  soldiers  brought 
us,  with  Captain  Fraser’s  compliments,  a  small  loaf  of  ex¬ 
quisitely  white  bread  in  a  cloth  of  equal  purity.  We  had 
been  living  upon  a  supply  of  Persian  bread  brought  from 
Shiraz,  now  eleven  days  old.  W^e  had  not  seen  white  bread 
since  we  left  Russia,  five  months  ago ;  and  this  loaf,  good  as 
any  in  England,  had  for  us,  in  its  setting  of  snowy  linen,  a 
chaim  which  it  is  not  possible  to  describe.  ^Vhen  Captain 
Fraser  joined  us  afterward  upon  the  roof,  we  were  rejoicing 
in  his  thoughtful  gift. 

Between  Ahrnedy  and  Bushire  there  is  an  expanse  of  wet 
sand  extending  for  about  twenty  miles,  to  the  j)GSSGSsion  of 
which  the  sea  on  both  sides  makes  pretensions.  It  connects 
the  dry  land  about  Bushire  with  the  main -land  of  Persia. 
Sometimes  the  Mashillah,”  as  it  is  called,  is  dry,  and  even 
dusty,  but  after  rain  it  is  sloppy ;  sometimes  worse  even  than 
when  ve  crossed  it.  W^e  rode  over  the  Mashillah  under  a 
down -pour  of  almost  continuous  rain.  At  every  step  our 
horses  sunk  over  the  hoofs,  and  the  muleteers  were  obliged 
to  walk  barefoot,  lest  they  should  lose  their  shoes  in  the  wet 
sand.  We  were  enveloped  in  mist:  we  could  see  nothinf^ 
but  the  wet  quagmire  over  which  we  were  struggling.  The 
clothes  of  our  soldiers,  Indian  and  Persian,  were  wet  through 
and  the  men  looked  as  sulky  and  miserable  as  Asiatics  always 
do  in  rainy  weather.  For  half  the  way  we  were  splashing 
through  water,  and  the  rest  was  swampy.  The  gholams,  who 
had  charge  of  the  baggage,  failed  utterly  to  keep  up  with  us, 
and  I  was  obliged  to  send  two  soldiers  to  look  after  them, 
and  to  bring  the  mules  forward.  They  were  not  very  willing 
to  go  back  through  the  rain,  and  an  hour  passed  before  they 
re -appeared  with  the  baggage,  but  without  the  gholams, 
whom  they  left  to  plod  on  at  their  own  pace. 

At  two  miles  from  Bushire  the  ground  became  harder. 
There  was  a  small  bank,  on  which  we  found  a  caravanserai. 


BUSHIKE. 


405 


We  made  a  fire,  and  had  luncheon  there  in  great  discomfort; 
but  it  was  advisable  to  wait  for  some  time,  in  order  to  sret 
the  caravan  together  for  our  march  into  Bushire.  To  reach 
the  town,  we  had  to  cross  a  level  stretch  of  sand,  a  fine  field 
for  a  gallop  with  better  and  less  tired  horses. 

We  can  hardly  express  the  joy  with  which  we  saw  the 
union- jack  flying  on  a  high  mast  planted  before  the  sea-front 
of  the  Residency.  Colonel  Ross’s  numerous  guard  of  Bom¬ 
bay  native  infantry  turned  out  to  present  arms  on  our  ar¬ 
rival;  and  in  the  wide  court-yard  of  his  house  the  resident 
himself  gave  us  a  kindly  welcome.  Our  ride  through  Persia 
was  ended. 


406 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJS^. 


CHAPTER  XXVL 

Bushire. — The  Residency. — Arab  Towers  and  Wooden  “Guns.” — Govern¬ 
ment  in  Persian  Gulf. — The  Arabian  Shore. — Arabs  and  Arabs. — The 
Sultan’s  Power  in  Arabia. — Oman  and  the  Ibadhis. — Pilgrims  to  Mecca. — 
Destiny  of  Rotten  Steamships. — Pilgrims’  Coffins. — Six  Hundred  Arabs 
Drowned. — Persian  Land  Revenue. — Collecting  Customs  Duties. — Trade 
and  Population. — Commerce  of  Bushire. — Cultivation  of  Opium. — Opium 
and  Cereals. — Export  of  Opium. — British  Expedition  in  1857. — Occupa¬ 
tion  of  Persia.— Persian  Army  in  1857.— Interests  of  England.— The 
Indo-Persian  Telegraph.— Persia  Ripe  for  Conquest.— Persia  and  India. 

AI’ter  the  cliapar-khanahs  and  caravanserais  of  the  road, 
how  Elysian  seemed  the  apartments  and  the  comforts  of  the 
Residency !  W e  gladly  parted  company  with  all  our  travel¬ 
ing-baggage,  and  Kazem’s  eyes  glistened  with  delight  as  we 
made  him  a  jiresent  of  bedsteads  and  bedding,  fur  coats  and 
jackets,  saddles  and  bridles,  pots  and  pans,  chairs  and  tables. 
We  had  a  week  to  enjoy  the  hospitality  of  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Ross  before  the  next  boat  of  the  British  Indian  Company 
would  sail  for  Kurrachee  and  Bombay. 

The  Residency  is  a  large  pile  of  buildings,  with  a  great  deal 
of  court  below,  and  a  great  deal  of  staircase  and  veranda  above. 
On  one  of  the  flat  roofs  is  a  structure  which  is  common  to 
all  the  superior  houses  of  Bushire — a  room  built  like  a  cage, 
with  poles  and  laths,  in  which  the  hot  nights  of  summer  are 
passed.  The  town  lies  behind  the  resident’s  house.  In  front, 
about  fifty  yards  from  the  gate,  there  is  a  sea-side  terrace,  a 
quarter-deck,  as  it  were,  belonging  to  the  Residency,  but  open 
to  all  comers  ;  and  below  this  the  waters  of  the  gulf  ripple  or 
beat  upon  the  sand.  At  each  end  of  this  walk  is  the  ruin  of 


ARAB  TOWERS  AND  WOODEN  “  GUNS.”  407 

an  Arab  tower,  a  relic  of  the  days  of  barbarism  and  piracy. 
In  Arab  fashion,  timbers  have  been  built  into  the  rough  ma¬ 
sonry,  and  upon  the  outer  side  of  the  shell  of  these  towers 
the  weather-worn  blocks  of  wood  project,  about  three  feet 
apart.  I  am  precise  about  these  timbers,  because,  by  a  cu¬ 
rious  chance,  I  had  happened  in  Shiraz  to  meet  with  an  old 
copy  of  a  London  newspaper,  containing  a  letter  from  a  trav¬ 
eling  correspondent  in  the  Persian  Gulf.  He  was  writing  of 
Bushire,  and  assuming  close  acquaintance  with  a  place  which 
he  had  evidently  seen  only  from  three  miles’  distance — in  fact, 
from  the  deck  of  a  steamer,  while  passing  down  from  Bus- 
sorah.  He  particularly  drew  attention  to  the  “armament” 
of  these  Arab  towers,  w'hich,  he  said,  were  encircled  with  an 
array  of  “  guns.”  This  is  not  the  first  time,  perhaps,  that 
wooden  poles  have  been  taken  for  cannon.  But  the  fact  is 
that  Bushire  is  entirely  without  any  remarkable  defenses. 
The  resident’s  gun-boat,  a  part  of  that  unknown  force,  the 
Anglo-Indian  Havy,  is  generally  in  the  ofiing,  and  the  milita¬ 
ry  duties  of  the  Persian  Governor  of  Bushire  are,  as  a  rule, 
confined  to  oppression  of  the  inland  subjects  of  the  Shah. 
Looking  out  from  the  front  of  the  Residency,  the  gulf  nar¬ 
rows  to  the  right  in  the  direction  of  Bussorah,  and  on  the 
left,  where  the  sand-bank  (at  the  end  of  which  is  Bushire) 
rises  rather  higher  than  elsewhere,  is  the  ground  on  which 
the  British  troops  encamped  in  1857.  If  the  opposite  shore 
were  in  range  of  sight,  we  might  see  to  the  south,  Bahrein, 
the  emporium  of  the  pearl-fishery.  The  annual  value  of  the 
pearls  found  in  the  Persian  Gulf  exceeds  four  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  pounds  a  year.  The  oyster  -  shells  have  a  considerable 
value  ;  for  these  are  as  large  as  a  cheese-plate,  and  the  inside 
is  the  best  of  that  lustrous  substance  known  as  “mother-of- 
pearl.” 

Upon  that — the  Turkish-Arabian  side  of  the  gulf — slave¬ 
holding  tribes  are  allowed  by  the  Governments  of  the  Em- 


408 


THEOUGH  PEKSIA  BY  CAKAVAN. 


press  of  India  and  of  the  Sultan  to  engage  in  a  moderate 
amount  of  fighting  among  themselves.  On  great  occasions, 
the  resident  at  Bushire  and  his  subordinate,  the  resident  at 
Muscat,  interfere ;  and  it  is  understood  that  the  Indian  Gov¬ 
ernment  permits  no  fighting  on  the  water.  On  land  a  system 
of  chieftainship  prevails,  and  he  who  is  strongest  wins  Bah¬ 
rein.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  is  nominally  the  sovereign  ruler 
of  this  wild  shore,  and  suzerain  of  the  chief  at  Bahrein,  and 
also  of  the  petty  Sultan  of  Muscat.  But  the  Turkish  Sultan’s 
authority  is  never  seen,  and  rarely  heard  of.  Sir  Lewis  Felly, 
who  was  the  predecessor  of  Colonel  Ross  as  resident  at  Bu¬ 
shire,  in  remarkable  if  somewhat  unofficial  language,  reported 
to  the  Government  of  Bombay  concerning  these  tribes :  “  The 
Arabs  acknowledge  the  Turks  as  we  do  the  Thirty-nine  Arti¬ 
cles — which  all  accept  and  none  remember.”  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  even  this  is  an  exaggeration  of  the  Turkish  au¬ 
thority.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  accepted  by  these  lawless  tribes, 
Avho  seem  to  have  but  one  rule  of  life,  which  is  this :  that  a 
man’s  slaves  are  his  own,  and  that  the  African  is  an  amphibi¬ 
ous  creature,  who,  with  the  cruel  alternative  of  a  wire  whip 
applied  to  his  back,  must  live  as  long  as  possible  under  the 
waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf  in  search  of- pearls  for  the  benefit 
of  Arab  masters.  The  reign  of  anarchy  at  Bahrein  can  not 
be  more  strikingly  displayed  than  in  the  official  report  of  the 
Bushire  resident,  that  ‘^Bahrein  once  hoisted  in  succession 
Turkish,  Persian,  and  English  flags.”  It  is  even  added,  ‘‘  She 
has  been  known,  when  attacked,  to  hoist  them  all  at  once.” 

Farther  to  the  south,  still  upon  the  Arabian  shore,  we  come 
to  Muscat  and  Oman ;  and  all  that  is  known  of  these  regions 
goes  further  to  show  that  the  Sultan’s  writ  does  not  run  in 
the  East  of  Arabia.  Colonel  Ross,  who  was  for  some  time 
resident  at  Muscat,  found  the  tribes  divided  under  the  general 
names  of  “Hinawi”  and  Ghafiri.”  But  it  appears  that  this 
division  is  not  ancient.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 


ARABS  AND  ARABS. 


409 


century,  in  civil  wars  of  unusual  magnitude,  one  set  of  tribes 
ranged  under  Kbalf,  the  Hinawi,  and  another  under  Moham¬ 
med,  the  Ghafiri,  whose  contentions  established  divisions  which 
liave  since  endured.  In  the  native  chronicles  of  these  tribes, 
their  historians,  or  writers,  have  divided  all  the  tribes  of 
Arabs  into  three  classes:  1.  El  Arab  el  Arabeh — ^.  e.,  pure 
Arabs — those  whom  they  believe  to  have  been  created  with  a 
natural  disposition  for  speaking  Arabic ;  2.  El  Arab  el  Mold} 
arribeh^  those  who  have  achieved  the  position  of  Arabs  by  ac¬ 
quiring  command  of  the  Arabic  language ;  and,  3.  El  Arab 
el  MostcC  ribeh,  the  naturalized  Arabs. 

Of  these  three  classes,  the  teachers  of  to-day  hold  the  first 
to  have  been  lost  or  become  extinct.  But  their  devotion  to 
the  God  of  Mohammed,  and  to  the  great  Meccan  as  the  fore¬ 
most  and  chiefest  of  the  prophets  and  interpreters  of  God, 
endures,  though  it  has  become  sectarian.  For  instance,  the 
Ibadhis,  a  very  numerous  religious  body  on  this  coast,  reject 
both  the  Turkish  and  the  Persian  doctrine  as  to  the  devolu¬ 
tion  of  Mohammed’s  powers  and  functions.  With  the  Turk 
it  is  a  necessary  article  of  faith  to  believe  that  the  Sultan 
administers  the  Koran,  as  the  rightful  representative  of  the 
Prophet.  He  has  no  confidence  in  civil  law,  which  differs 
from  the  code  of  Mohammed.'  The  Sultan  is  the  inheritor  of 
Mohammed’s  authority,  though  not  of  his  prophetic  powers  ; 
yet  probably  millions  would  accept  as  the  inspired  word  of 
God  any  pretended  revelation  lie  might  make  by  way  of 
addition  to  the  Koran.  These  are  not  times  favorable  for 
promulgating  supernatural  revelations ;  but  if  a  man  gifted 
with  as  much  original  genius  and  power  and  capacity  for 
leadership  as  Mohammed  possessed  Avere  to  arise  in  Turkey, 
he  might  add  Suras  to  the  Koran  at  his  pleasure.  But  his 
revelations,  unless  enforced  by  the  sword,  would  have  no  au¬ 
thority  among  tribes  like  the  Ibadhis  of  Arabia,  nor  Avith  the 
Persians.  The  latter  have  a  belief,  somewhat  like  that  of 

18 


410 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN'. 


Cliiistians,  that  their  Imanij  or  head  of  their  religion,  will 
some  day  re-appear  in  likeness  of  the  form  he  had  on  earth. 
But  the  Ibadhis  have  another  belief :  they  have  a  visible  suc¬ 
cessor  of  Mohammed,  a  true  Imam,  whom  they  select.  They 
are  much  given  to  pilgrimages,  which,  living  as  they  do  in 

the  Holy  Land  of  Mohammedans,  are  for  them  comparatively 
easy. 

In  his  Annals  of  Oman,”  Colonel  Ross  says :  “Among 
the  Ibadhis,  a  man  must  have  amassed  sufficient  for  expensed, 
and  one  year’s  ordinary  expenditure  in  addition,  before  he 
makes  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.”  The  observances  of  pil- 
giims  from  this  shore  are  not  very  different  from  those  of 
other  sections  of  Mohammedans.  In  the  Mina  valley  they 
throw  the  three  stones,  typical  of  Abraham’s  conflict  with 
Satan,  when  the  Evil  One  sought  to  tempt  the  father  of  the 
faithful.  They  are  taught  to  regard  as  essential  the  follow¬ 
ing  flve  points  of  ritual:  1.  The  spirit  or  intention  in  which 
the  pilgrimage  is  undertaken  and  carried  out;  2.  The  duty 
and  excellence  of  prayer  on  Mount  Arafat;  3.  Shaving  in 
Mina  valley;  4.  The  proper  making  of  the  circuit  of  the 
House  of  Cod ;  5.  Running  seven  times  from  Safa  to  Merwa. 
It  is  obligatory  that,  after  putting  on  the  ihram,  or  garment 
of  pilgrimage  (which  Mr.  Bicknell,  who  made  the  pilgrimage, 
says  consists  of  only  “two  towels”),  the  pilgrim  must  hunt 
no  game  and  take  no  life;  he  may  not  even  hunt  to  death 
the  vermin  upon  his  body ;  and  if,  in  a  fit  of  natural  irrita¬ 
tion,  a  death  of  this  sort  should  occur,  he  is  liable,  upon  con¬ 
fession,  to  the  payment  of  expiatory  offerings. 

The  modern  pilgrim,  whether  he  is  bound  for  Mecca  or  for 
Paray-le-Monial,  does  not  select  the  most  troublesome  mode 
of  travel;  and  even  native-born  Arabs  prefer  a  British  steam¬ 
ship  to  the  perils  and  hardships  of  crossing  the  sandy,  food¬ 
less,  waterless  desert,  which  lies  between  the  shores  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  the  holy  places  of  Mecca.  At  sea,  it  is 


DESTINY  OF  ROTTEN  STEAMSHIPS. 


411 


true,  they  endure  a  maximum  of  the  perils  of  navigation ; 
but  they  are  ignorant  of  the  comparative  safety  with  which 
Europeans  are  conveyed  in  well-appointed  ships,  and  they 
may  think  that  the  annual  sacrifice  of  life  enhances  the  grand¬ 
eur  and  importance  and  the  glory  of  pilgrimage.  Since  the 
invention  of  steam  navigation,  the  shores  of  Asia  have  been 
strewed  with  the  bodies  of  Mohammedan  pilgrims.  Mr.  Plini- 
soll  once  told  me  that  the  ship-breaker’s  trade  is  virtually  ex¬ 
tinct;  that  old  ships  are  not  broken  up.  He  has  found  that 
our  coasting-trade  is  to  a  great  extent  carried  on  in  rotten 
ships ;  and  I  myself,  while  bathing,  have  seen  one  of  these 
touch  the  sand,  and  fall  to  pieces  in  twenty  minutes ;  so  that, 
by  the  time  I  had  dressed  after  my  bath,  there  was  not  a 
trace  upon  the  sea  of  a  brig  of  three  hundred  tons  burden 
which  had  stranded  in  ten  feet  of  w’ater.  This,  no  doubt, 
is  the  general  destiny  of  old  sailing-ships  of  the  smaller  class. 
They  are  broken  up  by  storms,  and  sometimes  the  crew  are 
saved,  and  sometimes  ail  hands  are  lost. 

But  it  was  not  until  I  traveled  in  Asia  that  I  became  fully 
aware  of  what  is  done  with  rotten  steamships ;  they  are,  in 
fact,  the  pilgrims’  coffins.  ^  From  Japan  to  the  Red  Sea,  the 
superannuated  and  dangerous  steam-vessels — useless  in  a  su¬ 
pervised  trade,  in  which  it  is  not  permitted  to  drown  pas¬ 
sengers  and  crew  by  glaring  neglect  in  regard  to  the  sea¬ 
worthiness  of  the  ship — are  engaged  in  what  is  known  as  the 
native  carrying  and  coasting  trade.  While  we  were  at  Bu- 
shire,  news  arrived  of  the  complete  loss  (with  the  exception 
of  two  survivors  of  the  crew)  of  a  steamship  on  the  well- 
known  rocks  outside  the  port  of  Jiddah,  the  landing-place 
for  Mecca,  in  the  Red  Sea.  Six  hundred  pilgrims  were 
drowned,  and  a  fortnight  afterward  we  met  the  survivors  as 
fellow-passengers  in  our  voyage  to  Bombay.  They  were  na¬ 
tives  of  India,  and  from  them  we  learned  that  the  ship,  a  very 
old  one,  had  been  bought  by  a  native  merchant  in  Bombay 


412 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


from  an  English  firm,  and  chartered  for  the  conveyance  of 
pilgrims  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Jiddah.  The  men  said 
she  went  to  pieces  the  moment  she  touched  the  rocks,  like  a 
rotten  shell.  Though  they  were  close  to  shore,  there  was 
no  time  to  get  a  boat  out,  nor  to  make  any  effort  to  save 
the  crowd  of  passengers.  The  thing — homicide  is  perhaps 
the  fittest  name  for  it — occurs  frequently ;  and  the  difference 
between  the  drowning  of  Europeans  and  the  drowning  of 
Asiatics  is  graduated  in  the  English  newspapers  just  as  it 
is  in  the  ship-owner’s  mind.  The  destruction  of  six  hundred 
Arabs  is  recorded  in  London  in  a  single  line  of  small  print. 
If  the  original  owner  of  the  vessel  had  sent  it  to  sea  with  half 
the  number  -of  his  countrymen  on  board,  with  the  same  con¬ 
sequences,  the  largest  prints,  with  an  array  of  headings,  would 
have  signalized  the  natural  result  of  his  neglect.  The  parade 
of  virtuous  airs  by  ship-owners,  who  sell  old  vessels  of  this 
sort  with  the  knowledge  that  they  are  to  be  engaged  in  the 
carrying-trade  of  Asia,  while,  for  reasons  which  are  obvious, 
they  provide  vessels  for  service  at  home  which  comply  with 
reasonable  demands  for  the  assurance  of  safety,  remind  me 
of  the  old  lady,  widow  of  a  Southern  planter  and  owner  of 
many  slaves,  who,  professing  a  languid  horror  of  slavery,  said 
to  an  Abolitionist  visitor,  “  I  can  not  bear  it ;  it  goes  against 
my  conscience  to  keep  slaves.  I  mean  to  sell  mineP^ 

If  an  Arab  of  Bahrein  or  Muscat  should  produce  a  bag 
containing  the  smallest  seed  pearls,”  and  offer,  in  considera¬ 
tion  of  a  hundred  rupees,  that  a  handful  may  be  taken,  my 
advice  to  any  one  receiving  such  a  proposal  would  be,  “Don’t.” 
There  are  no  men  in  the  world,  not  even  the  jewelers  upon 
the  Ponte  Vecchio  at  Florence,  who  know  the  value  of  pearls 
,  better  than  these  Oriental  merchants.  But  they  are  not 
much  seen  at  Bushire,  which  is  engaged  with  the  import  of 
British  manufactures  and  the  export  of  Persian  produce  ;  the 
former  consisting  chiefly  of  cotton-piece  goods,  and  the  latter 


PERSIAN  LAND  REVENUE. 


413 


of  raw  cotton,  wool,  corn,  opium,  almonds,  and  raisins.  The 
world,  I  think,  can  not  furnish  another  example  of  a  trade 
carried  on  under  circumstances  as  deplorable  as  those  which 
indisputably  exist  at  Bushire.  There  is  no  security  for  the 
safe- conduct  of  commerce.  The  political  resident  has  lately 
reported  that  “  the  district  of  Bushire,  in  common  with  all 
Southern  Persia,  has  been  infested  with  bands  of  robbers, 
whom  the  local  authorities  have  proved  wholly  unable  to  re¬ 
press.”  But  this  is  only  a  part  of  the  insecurity  which  ex¬ 
tends  to  all  the  relations  of  Government.  Take  another  re¬ 
mark  by  Colonel  Ross :  The  Government  collects  the  land 
revenue,  paying  a  fixed  sum  to  the  Central  Government,” 
which  means  that  no  inhabitant  of  the  region  is  secure  in  his 
gains  against  the  rapacity  of  the  local  Government.  That 
Government  is  free  to  extort  all  that  it  can  get,  upon  condi¬ 
tion  of  making  a  certain  annual  payment  at  Teheran.  The 
consequence  is,  that  the  entire  province  is  kept  in  perpetual 
disorder  by  the  demands  of  armed  men,  who  plunder  under 
the  pretense  of  taxation,  and  who,  by  the  peasantry,  are 
scarcely  j^referred  to  robbers.  Then  with  regard  to  customs. 
In  describing  a  dinner  party  in  Ispahan,  I  have  mentioned 
the  khan,  to  whom  Colonel  Ross  alludes  in  his  report  to  the 
Bombay  Government,  in  which  he  states  that  “  the  Bushire 
customs  were  let  to  a  person  of  Ispahan,  in  1873,  for  32,000 
tomans,  or  rs.  1,28,000.”  A  less  civil  but  more  correct  mode 
of  expressing  the  circumstances  would  be  to  say  that  a  man 
with  the  reputation  of  an  ex -brigand  has  amassed  a  fort¬ 
une  by  purchasing  from  the  Shah,  for  the  above-mentioned 
sum,  the  power  of  extorting  all  that  he  can  in  any  manner 
get,  by  way  of  customs,  in  or  about  the  port  or  district  of 
Bushire. 

Imagine  such  a  system  of  customs  carried  out  by  such  ‘‘  a 
person”  under  the  following  circumstances,  for  which  the  po¬ 
litical  resident  may  be  quoted  as  the  highest  authority:  “The 


414 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


farmer  of  customs  employs  his  own  servants  to  manage,  Gov¬ 
ernment  oflScials  not  interfering.  The  transactions  are  kept 
secret,  no  returns  being  required  by  the  Government.”  Col¬ 
onel  Ross,  in  language  which  I  have  already  quoted,  adds, 
“The  system  is  felt  to  be  inconvenient  to  traders.”  He  is 
too  able  a  man  not  to  have  experienced  some  difficulty  in  re¬ 
straining  his  pen  to  such  moderation  in  regard  to  a  “.system” 
which  is  indeed  infamous  —  the  repression  of  trade  by  the 
license  of  robbery. 

To  all  this  must  be  added  the  uncertain  burden  of  export 
duties,  which,  in  the  article  of  raw  cotton,  “  are  so  large  as  to 
prevent  trade,”  and  the  difficulties  of  a  road,  nowhere  good, 
which  culminate  in  such  places  as  the  Kotul  Maloo  and  the 
Kotul  Hochter. 

The  trade,  and  I  believe  the  population  of  Persia  also,  are 
declining.  In  transmitting  to  the  Government  of  India  the 
Trade  Reports  for  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Muscat  for  the  year 
ISYI-’YS,  Colonel  Ross  states  that  “th,ere  has  been  a  very 
marked  falling-off  in  trade,  as  regards  the  Persian  coast,  dur¬ 
ing  the  year  under  report.  At  the  port  of  Bushire  the  de¬ 
crease  is  shown  both  in  imports  and  exports,  and  amounts  to 
an  aggregate  of  over  eighteen  lacs  of  rupees.  The  decrease 
would  have  been  still  greater  but  for  the  removal  of  the  pro¬ 
hibition  on  the  export  of  grain  and  increased  exportation  of 
opium.”  The  following  shows  the  total  value  of  the  exports 
and  imports  from  and  into  the  port  of  Bushire  for  the  years 
1873  and  ISYI:  ^ 

1873.  1ST4. 

Imports — Total  value . Es.  39.85.820  Es.  34.72.720 

“  Specie . . .  6.17.405  '  1.25.000 

46.02.925  35.97.700 

There  is  thus  a  decrease  in  the  total  value  of  imports,  in¬ 
cluding  specie,  of  more  than  ten  lacs  of  rupees.  The  exports 
are : 


COMMERCE  OF  BUSHIRE. 


415 


1S7S. 

Exports — Total  value . Es.  28.67.333 

Specie .  10.53.396 


18T4. 

lls.  26.45.775 
4.46.000 


39.20.729 


30.91.775 


The  decrease  in  one  year  of  the  exports  is  thus  shown  to  be 
considerably  more  than  eight  lacs  of  rupees.  In  this  one 
year  the  demand  of  Persia  for  cotton  goods  of  English  man¬ 
ufacture  declined  in  value  to  the  extent  of  three  lacs  of  ru¬ 
pees,  while  the  value  of  her  export  of  raw  cotton  declined 
only  to  the  extent  of  one  lac. 

The  two  chief  items  in  the  port  statistics  of  Bushire  are 
the  import  of  cotton  goods  and  the  export  of  opium.  With 
regard  to  the  former,  although  there  has  been  the  signal  de¬ 
cline  above  referred  to,  it  was  the  opinion  of  those  most 
competent  to  judge  that  at  the  close  of  1875  the  market 
was  overstocked,  and  that  a  further  depression  of  trade  was 
to  be  expected.  With  reference  to  opium,  of  which  in  1874 
there  was  exported  from  Bushire  a  quantity  valued  at  more 
than  fourteen  and  a  half  lacs  of  rupees  (about  two  lacs  more 
than  the  value  of  the  export  in  the  preceding  year),  an  inter¬ 
esting  report  by  Mr.  Lucas,  one  of  Colonel  Ross’s  assistants 
at  Bushire,  has  been  j)resented  to  the  Government  of  India, 
from  which  it  appears  that  opium  is  cultivated  principally  in 
Yezd  and  Ispahan,  and  partly  in  the  districts  of  Khorassan, 
Kerman,  Ears,  and  Shuster.  The  opium  grown  in  Yezd  is 
considered  to  be  of  superior  quality  to  that  produced  in  Is¬ 
pahan  and  elsewhere,  owing  to  the  climate  and  soil  being 
better  adapted  for  the  production  of  the  drug.  But  in  the 
district  of  Yezd  there  can  not  be  any  considerable  increase  in 
the  area  devoted  to  the  growth  of  poppies,  owing  to  the  utter 
insufficiency  of  the  water  supply.  In  the  province  of  Ispa¬ 
han  water  is  more  easily  attainable,  and  there  an  increase  in 
the  production  of  opium  would  seem  possible.  Mr.  Lucas 
appears  to  have  made  the  discovery  that  the  terrible  famine 


416 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


which  afflicted  Persia  in  18 70-’ 71  was  due,  in  no  small  de¬ 
gree,  to  the  withdrawal  of  land  from  the  production  of  cere¬ 
als,  owing  to  the  temptation  which  the  far  greater  profits  of 
opium  held  out  to  the  cultivators.  He  says  that,  a  few  years 
ago,  the  profits  of  the  opium-trade  having  attracted  the  at¬ 
tention  of  Persians,  almost  all  available  or  suitable  ground  in 
Yezd,  Ispahan,  and  elsewhere  was  utilized  for  the  cultivation 
of  opium,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  cereals  and  other  produce. 
It  was  then  supposed  by  some  that  the  cultivation  of  opium 
would  be  indefinitely  extended  in  Persia.  But  the  attempt 
of  the  natives  to  enrich  themselves  by  cultivation  and  growth 
of  a  profitable  article  of  trade,  and  their  neglect  to  provide 
the  necessaries  of  life,  combined  with  drought  and  other  cir¬ 
cumstances,  resulted  in  the  famine.  The  costly  experience 
thus  gained  has  made  the  Persians  more  prudent;  and  al¬ 
though  the  cultivation  has  improved,  and  the  yield  from  the 
same  area  has  been  greater,  the  export  in  1874  was  less  by 
600  cases  than  in  1869-’70. 

The  crop  is  harvested  in  May  and  June,  manufactured  and 
exported  in  the  winter.  Of  the  2002  cases  exported  in  1874, 
nearly  three-fourths  were  shipped  for  Hong-Kong,  and  the  re¬ 
maining  583  cases  for  London.  In  order  to  avoid  the  duty 
levied  at  British  Indian  ports,  the  opium  intended  for  China 
is  carried  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Suez,  where  it  is  tranship, 
ped  into  vessels  of  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company. 
The  Persian  opium  is,  however,  said  to  be  not  much  liked  in 
China,  owing  to  its  having  a  peculiar  flavor,  caused  by  the 
mixture  of  a  large  quantity  of  oil  during  the  process  of  prep¬ 
aration,  and  also  because  it  is  not  always  free  from  adulter¬ 
ating  matter.  It  is  in  greater  favor  with  the  wholesale  druc- 
gists  of  London,  inasmuch  as  it  contains,  on  an  averas'e,  a 
larger  quantity  of  morphia  than  the  opium  produced  in 
India. 

Bushire  (which  is  sometimes  spelled  Abushehr  and  Bu- 


BRITISH  EXPEDITION  IN  1857. 


417 


sliahr)  is  a  collection  of  mud  hovels,  no  better  and  no  worse 
than  other  towns  in  Persia.  The  population  is  a  mixture  of 
Persians,  Arabs,  Indians,  and  Armenians.  The  rupee  is  cur¬ 
rent  coin  at  Bushire.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  British  ex¬ 
pedition  in  1857  did  much  to  familiarize  the  people  of  the 
gulf  with  the  coinage  of  India.  But  of  that  war  in  which 
Outran!  and  Havelock  were  engaged,  no  traces  are  visible 
at  Bushire.  That  it  was  ended  by  a  satisfactory  submission 
on  the  part  of  Persia,  and  that  those  gallant  leaders  were 
thus  released  from  one  of  the  most  ineffective  wars  our 
country  has  ever  waged,  in  time  to  give  their  aid  and  that 
of  their  forces  in  suppressing  the  Sepoy  mutiny,  was  most 
fortunate. 

If  another  difficulty  should  arise,  Indian  officers  will  know 
more  about  Persia  than  they  did  in  1857.  They  will  under¬ 
stand  that  before  any  one  of  the  great  cities  of  Persia  can  be 
reached,  there  are  for  an  army  terrible  obstacles  to  be  sur¬ 
mounted  in  the  mountainous  paths,  and  in  the  extreme  sever¬ 
ity  of  the  winter.  Nothing  that  our  expedition  accomplished 
was  calculated  to  strike  the  Persians  with  terror.  The  peo¬ 
ple  of  Teheran,  of  Ispahan,  and  of  Shiraz  know  little,  and 
care  little,  for  the  towns  of  Mohammerah  and  Bushire,  to 
which,  together  with  the  island  of  Karrack,  our  occupation 
was  limited.  The  force  tried  the  road  to  Shiraz,  but  found 
it  inaccessible  j  and,  in  the  small  advance  that  was  made,  the 
sufferings  of  the  troops  from  cold  was  very  severe.  We  may 
some  day  be  forced  to  occupy  the  province  of  Pars;  but  that 
is  a  policy  which  England  does  well,  by  all  the  means  in  her 
power,  to  avoid.  It  implies  the  abandonment  of  alt  that  is 
most  valuable  in  Persia  to  Russia,  whether  Russia  annexes 
North  Persia  or  not.  Even  now  the  manufactures  of  Russia 
compete  with  us,  and  successfully,  as  far  south  as  Shiraz.  A 
prolonged  hostile  occupation  of  Bushire  and  the  coast  by  the 
British  would  make  Ispahan  wholly  Russian;  and  the  rich 

18^ 


418 


THEOUGII  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJiT. 


provinces  upon  the  Caspian,  including  Tabriz,  the  most  pop¬ 
ulous  town  in  Persia,  would  be  virtually,  or  in  fact,  part  of 
the  Russian  Empire. 

-  The  occupation  of  Persia  is  for  the  Tsar  a  very  much  more 
easy  matter  than  for  the  Empress  of  India.  The  year  1857 
was  well  chosen  for  us  to  be  at  war  with  Persia,  the  year 
after  the  Treaty  of  Paris  had  been  forced  upon  the  young 
Tsar,  who  loves  and  longed  for  peace.  Even  then  \ve  might 
not  have  continued  it  with  impunity ;  and  such  an  occasion 
is  not  likely  to  recur.  The  Shah’s  power  exists  by  favor  of 
England  and  Russia  j  but  the  authority  of  England  in  Persia 
is  probably  inferior  to  that  of  Russia,  because  Russia  is  ab¬ 
solute  in  the  Casiiian,  and  thus,  with  a  secure  base  of  opera¬ 
tions  by  land  and  water,  can  overrun  Persia  by  passing  her 
armies  through  the  Caucasus,  or  down  the  Caspian,  without 
fear  of  molestation.  Though  we  met  with  no  physical  trace 
of  the  war  of  1857,  we  heard  an  incident  which  is  very  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  Persian  army.  After  the  loss  by  the  Per¬ 
sians  of  Mohammerah  in  that  war,  the  officers  of  the  Khelij 
regiment,  wffiich  was  thought  to  have  behaved  badly,  were 
punished  by  having  rings  passed  through  their  noses  in  the 
Shah’s  camp  near  Teheran ;  to  these  rings  cords  were  attach¬ 
ed,  and  the  unhappy  men,  harnessed  in  this  fashion,  were  then 
driven  in  disgrace  through  the  lines.  It  was  said  that  Prince 
Khunler,  who  was  in  command,  especially  deserved  punish¬ 
ment  j  but  that  as  he  was  able  to  pay  a  douceur  of  fifteen 
thousand  tomans,  he  received,  instead  of  disgrace,  a  sword 
and  dress  of  honor. 

The  true  interests  of  England  in  Persia  are  easily  appre¬ 
ciated.  It  is  our  interest  to  promote  reform  in  the  Shah’s 
Government,  and  to  improve  his  army,  in  order  to  secure  bet¬ 
ter  government  in  Persia,  which  is  impossible  without  a  suf¬ 
ficient  and  well- trained  military  force.  The  Persian  army 
would  be  a  respectable  force  if  it  were  well  drilled,  and  led 


INTERESTS  OF  ENGLAND. 


419 


by  men  of  competent  education,  sufficiently  well  paid  to  be 
removed  from  the  paltry  temptations  which  are  now  enough 
to  lead  Persian  officers  from  the  line  of  duty.  As  a  rule,  they 
are  scandalously  ignorant,  greedy  of  bribes,  vicious,  and  cru¬ 
elly  oppressive.  Our  interest  in  Persia  is  synonymous  with 
that  of  the  Persians.  The  present  condition  of  Persia,  fast 
becoming  worse,  invites  foreign  occupation.  It  is  our  interest 
that  Persia  should  stand ;  prospering,  improving,  and  inde¬ 
pendent  ;  and  to  this  end  there  are  needed  great  intelligence 
and  activity,  together  with  the  most  complete  knowledge  of 
the  policy  of  England,  of  India,  and  of  Russia  which  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  obtain,  in  the  person  of  the  minister  accredited  by  the 
English  Government  to  the  Shah.  This  indispensable  pro¬ 
vision  has  not  been  duly  regarded  by  the  Foreign  Office;  and 
until  it  has  been  made,  the  first  and  most  necessary  step  to¬ 
ward  the  promotion  of  British  interests  in  Persia  Avill  not 
have  been  accomplished. 

England  has,  however,  planted  in  the  Indo-European  Tele¬ 
graph  an  “  institution  ”  in  Persia,  which,  though  it  adds  noth¬ 
ing  to  her  strength  in  the  country,  and  does  not  in  any  degree 
fortify  her  position  as  against  Russia,  is  a  monument  of  her 
power  and  an  emblem  of  her  civilization.  The  Persian  sys¬ 
tem  of  government  must,  indeed,  be  execrable,  when  we  find 
that  it  has  not  benefited  by  this  great  addition  to  the  power 
and  resources  of  a  wise  administration.  Nothing  but  the  in¬ 
herent  badness  of  that  Government  could  have  led  to  this  fail¬ 
ure.  The  decline  of  Persia  has  not  in  any  perceptible  degree 
been  arrested  by  this  annihilation  of  space  in  the  service  of 
the  Government,  in  a  country  where  space  is  a  chief  obstacle 
to  good  government.  I  have  often  thought,  when  following 
these  wires  across  salt  deserts,  where  there  was  no  sign  of 
life,  and  in  the  mountains,  where  the  iron  cords  were  some¬ 
times  strained  almost  to  breaking  by  the  weight  of  frozen 
snow,  that  under  the  rule  of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  the  gov- 


420 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


eminent  of  an  empire,  compared  with  which  that  of  Persia  is 
insignificant,  was  passing  there;  and  thus  I  have  been  led  to 
reflect  what  a  blessing  it  might  prove  to  that  most  miserable 
land  if  conquest  were  to  secure  peace  and  order,  and  give  to 
Persia,  with  those  most  precious  gifts,  the  scientific  discov¬ 
eries  of  Europe. 


PEOVINCE  OF  FAES. 


421 


CHAPTER  XXYII. 

The  Province  of  Pars.  — Memorandum  by  Colonel  Boss.  — Boundaries  of 
Pars.  — Government  of  Pars.  — Six  Pirst-class  Governments.  —  The  Dis¬ 
tricts  of  Bushire. — Karagash  River. — Eeliats. — Nomad  Tribes  of  Pars. — 
Numbers  of  the  Tribes. — Eel-Khanee  and  Eel-Begee. — Chief  Routes  in 
Pars. — Taxation  and  Revenue. — A  Revenue  Survey. 

England  is  more  interested  in  the  province  of  Ears  than 
in  any  other  part  of  Persia;  and  in  a  memorandum  by  Col¬ 
onel  Ross,  lately  communicated  to  the  Government  of  Bom¬ 
bay,  I  have  found  so  much  valuable  information  upon  the  af¬ 
fairs  of  that  province,  which  includes  an  area  of  not  less  than 
sixty  thousand  square  miles,  that  I  propose  in  this  chapter  to 
give  the  facts  almost  in  the  words  of  the  political  resident. 
Ears  includes  the  whole  of  Southern  Persia  proper,  Lar  being 
considered  one  of  its  subordinate  governments.  On  the  Per¬ 
sian  Gulf,  P'ars  includes  the  sea- board  belonging  to  Persia, 
from  50°  to  58°  east  longitude  —  from  Bunder  Dilam  to  the 
boundary  beyond  Cape  Jashk.  The  northern  limit  of  Ears, 
identical  with  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Shiraz  Government,  I 
have  mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter,  in  describing  our  brief 
stay  at  the  caravanserai  of  Ahminabad,  which  is  certainly  the 
most  northerly  house  in  Ears,  between  the  thirty-first  and 
thirty-second  parallels  of  north  latitude. 

On  the  west.  Ears  is  bounded  by  Khuzistan  and  Luristan ; 
on  the  north-east,  the  district  of  Aberkah  lies  between  Ears 
and  Yezd,  belonging  to  neither  at  present,  and  from  the  north¬ 
east  comes  to  a  point  at  no  great  distance  north  of  Bunder 
Abbas;  the  frontier  of  P\ars  is  identical  with  that  of  the 
Persian  province  of  Kirman.  The  districts  of  Bunder  Abbas 


422 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAKA VAIS'. 


lie  in  the  strip  between  the  gulf  and  Kirman  and  Bashkard, 
and  are  included  in  Fars  in  a  political  rather  than  a  geo¬ 
graphical  sense. 

The  marked  contrast  of  climate  which  I  have  shown  as  ex¬ 
isting  between  that  of  the  uplands  from  Ahminabad  to  Daliki, 
as  compared  with  the  region  which  we  crossed  in  riding  from 
Daliki  to  Bushire,  has  given  rise  to  a  division  of  Fars  into 
the  Garmsir,”  or  hot  districts,  and  the  ‘‘  Sardsir,”  or  cool 
districts ;  the  former  being  the  lowlands,  and  the  latter  the 
highlands. 

j  Colonel  Ross  states  that  a  great  part  of  the  province  of 
^ars  is  still,  as  regards  Europeans,  terra  incognita ;  and  he 
adds  that  even  the  courses  of  the  most  important  streams  are 
matter  of  conjecture.  Very  much  has  been  added  to  our 
knowledge  of  “Eastern  Persia”  by  the  work  of  Major  St. 
John,  R.E.,  in  connection  with  the  Boundary  Commission, 
recently  published  by  the  authority  of  the  Indian  Government. 

The  Governor -general  of  Fars,  who  is  also  Governor  of 
Shiraz,  and  whose  seat  of  government  is  in  that  city,  reigns 
in  the  name  of  the  Shah  over  this  extensive  and  imjDortant 
province.  He  is  assisted  by  the  Mushir,  to  whom  I  alluded 
as  the  builder  of  the  excellent  bridge  over  the  Daliki  River, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Kotul  Maloo,  and  the  improver  of  the  Kotul 
Dochter.  The  Mushir  (whose  full  title  is  “  Mushir-el-Mulk  ”) 
is  the  person  most  feared  in  the  province ;  but  this  does  not 
appear  to  exempt  him  from  the  ordinary  vexations  of  Persia ; 
for  a  caravan  conveying  goods  on  his  private  account  from 
Bushire  was  not  long  since  pillaged  near  the  Kotul  Dochter. 

For  administrative  and  fiscal  purposes,  there  are  in  Fars 
six  subordinate  governments  of  the  first  class,  under  subgov¬ 
ernors,  who  are  responsible  for  the  revenues  and  management 
of  their  districts.  Of  these  we  have  met  with  one  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  Mirza  Reza  Khan,  Governor  of  Abadeh,  whose  letter 
to  myself  has  been  i3rinted  in  an  earlier  chapter.  Besides  the 


SIX  PIRST-CLASS  GOVERNMENTS. 


423 


divisions  of  the  first  class,  there  are  considerable  districts  not 
administered  by  these  six  governments.  The  outlying  dis¬ 
tricts  are  usually  managed  by  a  “  head-man,”  directly  respon¬ 
sible  to  the  Government  in  Shiraz. 

The  six  subordinate  divisions  of  Fars  are:  1.  Bebehan; 
2.  Bushire;  3.  Lar  and  Salia;  4.  Bunder  Abbas;  5.  Barale; 
6.  Abadeh  and  Iklid,  each  of  which  is  subdivided. 

The  district  of  Bebehan  is  ruled  by  the  Ihtisham-el-Dowleh, 
Sultan  Awiss  Mirza,  son  of  Ferhad  Mirza,  Motemid-el-Dow- 
leh.  The  revenues  of  this  Government  are,  in  part,  obtained 
from  chiefs  of  Eeliat  tribes.  The  political  resident  states  that 
Bebehan  is  little  known  to  Europeans,  and  he  thinks  the 
routes  to  Shiraz  and  Kazeroon  require  further  surveying. 

His  Highness  the  Sipah  Salar  (commander-in-chief),  who  is 
really  Sadr  Azem  (prime  minister),  gave  us  a  vizierial  letter 
to  Houssein  Kuli  Khan,  entitled  Saad-ul-Mulk,  the  Governor 
of  Bushire.  But  his  excellency  was  out  tax-gathering  with  a 
considerable  force,  and  consequently  we  had  not  the  honor  of 
meeting  with  him.  Formerly  Bushire  and  the  adjacent  dis¬ 
trict  were  administered  by  a  governor  directly  responsible  to 
the  Imperial  Government  in  Teheran.  The  present  governor 
is  the  subordinate  of  the  Governor  of  Shiraz. 

The  Bushire  districts  are  dependent  almost  entirely  upon 
the  rain-fall  for  the  watering  of  their  crops.  The  rivers  of 
Khisht  and  Daliki,  skirting  the  district  of  Hashtistan,  unite 
and  flow  into  the  Rabillah  Creek,  some  miles  north  of  the 
town  of  Bushire.  The  lower  part  of  Dashtee  (a  subdistrict 
of  Bushire)  is  traversed  by  a  river  which  flows  into  the  creek 
called  Khor  Ziaret.  It  is  supposed  that  this  is  the  stream 
which,  farther  up  the  country,  is  known  as  the  Karagash  (the 
ancient  Silakus),  which  Colonel  Ross  says  is  believed  to  rise 
near  Shahpur,  and  to  flow  round  to  the  eastward  of  Firoza- 
bad.  He  continues :  ‘‘  The  Khor  Ziaret  can  be  entered  by  ves¬ 
sels  of  not  exceeding  six  feet  draught,  and  is  navigable  for 


424 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN-. 


such  craft  for  some  miles.  I  recently  proceeded  up  the  creek 
for  about  twelve  miles,  and  the  information  elicited  from  the 
inhabitants  of  the  district  tended  to  confirm  the  conjecture 
that  here  is  the  embouchure  of  the  Karagash  River.  It  would 
be  an  interesting  and  useful  undertaking  to  march  up  this 
river  as  far  as  possible.” 

We  visited  Lingah,  in  the  Lar  districts,  on  our  way  dowm 
the  Persian  Gulf.  These  districts,  says  Colonel  Ross,  “are 
little  known  to  Europeans,  and  the  geographical  position  of 
the  town  of  Lar  but  vaguely  known.”  We  also  landed  in  the 
districts  of  Bunder  Abbas,  to  which  we  have  made  a  reference 
in  the  notes  of  our  passage  from  Bushire.  In  the  Government 
of  Darah,  which  we  nowhere  traversed,  there  are  some  inter¬ 
esting  ruins,  and  Colonel  Ross  states  that  iron  mines  exist 
in  this  part  of  Persia.”  In  the  sixth  district— the  Govern¬ 
ment  of  Abadeh  and  Iklid  —  we  staid,  in  our  ride  between 
Ispahan  and  Shiraz,  both  at  the  chief  town  and  at  Zurmak,  in 
■  the  same  district. 

A  very  interesting  portion  of  Colonel  Ross’s  memorandum 
is  that  which  relates  to  “The  Eeliat  or  Romad  Tribes  of  Ears,” 
races  to  which  I  have  already  made  more  than  one  allusion. 
He  says : 

“  Some  of  the  Eeliat  tribes  found  in  Bebehan  have  already 
been  mentioned,  and  it  was  stated  that  they  are  Looree  tribes. 
In  other  parts  of  Ears,  the  Eels  are  ‘  Toorks  ’  and  ‘Arabs.’ 
These  pastoral  peojfie  roam  with  their  flocks  from  one  pastur¬ 
age  to  another,  according  to  the  seasons.  In  the  winter  they 
frequent  the  comparatively  low  lands;  and  when  the  increas¬ 
ing  power  of  the  sun  commences  to  scorch  the  grass,  they 
move  off  to  the  cooler  uplands.  The  winter  encampments 
are  termed  ‘  kishlak,’  and  the  cool  summer  quarters  ‘  zelak.’ 
Each  tribe  usually  frequents  the  same  tract  year  after  year. 
In  the  early  part  of  summer,  the  Eeliats  are  on  the  move 
with  their  flocks,  and  robberies  are  then  frequent.  It  is  nec- 


EELIATS. 


425 


essarily  difficult  to  form  any  estimate  of  the  number  of  those 
tribes,  but  they  form  an  important  part  of  the  population  of 
Fars,  and  contribute  some  twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  pounds 
of  revenue  yearly. 

“  The  Eeliat  population  has  greatly  diminished  of  late  years, 
as  during  the  last  famine  many  perished,  with  a  large  propor¬ 
tion  of  their  cattle  and  flocks ;  others  have  of  late  abandoned 
the  nomadic  life,  and  become  members  of  the  settled  popula¬ 
tion;  and  this  has  been  particularly  the  case  with  the  once 
noted  ‘  Feelee  ’  tribe. 

“  Of  all  the  Eeliats  of  Fars,  the  Kashkaee  are  most  numer¬ 
ous;  and  although  the  number  has  greatly  diminished  since 
the  famine,  they  muster  about  eight  thousand  houses.  This 
tribe  have  been  great  breeders  of  horses,  but  at  present  com¬ 
paratively  few  are  reared  among  them.  The  families  {teerdh) 
of  Kashkaee  are  Ader-Ban,  Chardeh,  Chireek,  and  Lashnee. 

‘‘The  Arab  Eels  have  about  three  thousand  houses  (or 
rather  tents),  and  roam  from  their  kishlaks  in  Salia  to  the 
summer  pastures,  or  zelak,  in  Bowanat.  They  claim  descent 
from  the  Benu  Sharban  tribe  of  Arabia. 

“  The  Basseree  tribe,  numbering  about  one  thousand  houses, 
are  found  in  Mervdasht,  Sirhadd-i-charhardongah,  and  Ser- 
vistan. 

“  The  Baharloo  tribe,  of  about  one  thousand  tents,  inhabit 
Darab;  others  are  the  Arayaloo,  the  ‘Kapar’  and  ‘Abu’lwar- 
dee,’  the  ‘Tewalallee’  and  ‘Amlah  Shahee;’  the  ‘Mammasen- 
nee,’  of  about  one  thousand  houses,  inhabit  Shoolistan. 

“  The  following  tribes  are  nearly  extinct  as  nomads,  having 
mostly  settled  in  towns  :  ‘Feelee,’  ‘Bujat,’  ‘  Berkushadee.’ 

“The  Eeliats  are  for  the  most  part  governed  immediately 
by  chiefs  of  their  own,  who  are  appointed  by  the  Government 
of  Persia,  and  held  responsible  for  collection  of  revenue  and 
the  conduct  of  the  tribes. 

“  The  Kashkaee  tribes  have  at  their  head  an  Eel-Khance 


426 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJJ". 


and  Eel-Begee.  The  former  is  the  higher  title,  and  the 
nominal  Eel-Khanee  now  is  the  Sooltam  Mohammed  Khan ; 
but  as  matters  are,  this  personage’s  office  is  jiractically  in 
abeyance,  and  is  administered  by  a  Persian  officer,  Kowzer 
Mirza. 

The  present  Eel-Begee  is  Darah  Khan,  brother  of  Sohrah 
Khan,  who  was  put  to  death  by  the  Persian  Government  at 
Shiraz.  The  residence  of  the  Eel-Khanee  of  Kashkaee  has  till 
lately  been  Firozabad,  where  the  late  Eel-Khanee,  Mohammed 
Khoolee  Khan,  commenced  to  build  a  pretty  villa,  somewhat 
in  European  style.” 

It  will  also  be  interesting  to  quote  what  the  political  resi¬ 
dent  has  to  say  in  the  current  year  as  to  the  routes  in  the 
province  of  Pars  : 

“The  chief  caravan  road  traversing  Ears  is  that  which 
leads  from  Bushire  to  Shiraz  by  Kazeroon,  and  from  Shiraz 
northward  toward  Ispahan. 

'  “Another  route  from  Bushire  to  Shiraz  passes  through 
Firozabad.  This  road  is  somewhat  longer,  but,  from  the 
gradients  being  greater,  is  considered  more  capable  of  being 
made  practicable  for  wdieeled  conveyances  or  artillery.  At 
present  this  road  is  not  used  as  regards  the  sea-port  traffic. 

^  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

“The  roads  to  the  summer  haunts  of  the  Eeliats  in  the 
north-west  of  Fars,  where  the  great  mountain,  Koh-i-Dana, 
or  Koh-i-Padana,  rises  to  a  height  (according  to  Major  St. 
John)  of  about  seventeen  or  eighteen  thousand  feet,  have,  it 
is  thought,  never  been  explored  by  British  travelers,  though 
these  districts  are  interesting  enough  to  repay  the  toil  of  a 
journey  through  them. 

“More  accurate  topographical  information  regarding  the 
various  districts  of  Fars  (as  of  other  provinces),  and  the  roads 
traversing  them,  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  the  Persian 
Government.  In  fact,  the  acquirement  of  such  knowledge 


A  KEVENUE  SUEVEY. 


427- 


would  evidently  be  one  of  the  first  steps,  and  an  indispensable 
condition,  to  any  real  reform  of  the  fiscal  system  and  admin¬ 
istration  of  the  country  generally.  There  are  at  the  present 
extensive  tracts  and  districts,  the  extent,  capacity,  and  even 

position  of  which  are  but  vaguely  known  at  the  seat  of  Gov- 

« 

ernment. 

Information  regarding  the  resources  of  many  districts  is 
necessarily  derived  by  the  Government  of  the  country  from 
interested  persons. 

In  some  cases — it  is  said  that  in  one  case,  out  of  ten  thou¬ 
sand  pounds  actually  realized  from  a  district — about  two 
thousand  pounds  goes  to  the  Government,  and  the  remainder 
into  the  private  purse  of  the  official  who  farms  the  place. 
i  The  Persian  Government  very  frequently  puts  the  leases  up 
I  for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder;  and  this  system,  though  a 
/  partial  safeguard  against  such  extreme  cases,  has  many  im- 
/  satisfactory  results.  Be  it  remarked  that  it  matters  nothing 
I  to  the  peasantry  what  the  assessment  may  be,  as  in  any  case 
they  are  taxed  to  the  utmost.  But  the  question  is  one  im¬ 
mediately  affecting  the  resources  of  the  Government,  and 
indirectly  the  whole  well-being  of  the  State, 
i  ‘‘It  would  be  difficult  to  suggest  a  measure  calculated  to 
\  have  a  more  beneficial  result  to  Persia  than  a  well  and  hon- 
\  estly  conducted  revenue  survey.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
\  that  the  more  enlightened  of  the  Persian  ministers  are  alive 
I  to  these  considerations,  and  disposed  to  adopt  this  measure ; 

I  but  so  many  are  interested  in  perpetuating  existing  igno- 
;  ranee,  that  the  scheme  would  have  many  powerful  ojDposers. 
i  If  adopted,  however,  not  only  would  result  a  knowledge 
i  and  increase  of  her  resources  to  Persia,  but  justly  and  prop- 
^  erly  fixed  assessments  would  tend  to  check  the  system  of  dis- 
i.  honesty  and  fraud,  which,  commencing  at  the  sources,  as  at 
i  present,  taints  the  whole  stream  of  official  life  in  Persia.” 


428 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAN-, 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

British  India  Steam  Navigation  Company. — Crew  of  the  Euphrates. — Pil¬ 
grims  in  Difficulty. — Streets  of  Bushire. — German  Archceological  Expe¬ 
dition. — Sermons  in  Bricks. — Leaving  Bushire. — Slavery  in  the  Persian 
Gulf.' — Fugitive  -  slave  Circulars. — The  Parsee  Engineer’s  Evidence. — 
Ships  searched  for  Slaves. — Pearl-fisheries  of  Bahrein. — Anglo-Turkish 
Ideas. — Lingah  in  Laristan. — Bunder-Abbas. — Landing  at  Cape  Jahsk. 
— “Pegs  ”  and  Pale  Clerks. — A  Master  Mariner’s  Grievance. — The  End 
of  Persia. — Coast  of  Beloochistan. — Shooting  Sleeping  Turtles. — Harbor 
of  Kurrachee. — Kurrachee  Boat-wallahs. — The  Orthodox  Scinde  Hat. — • 
Faults  of  Indian  Society. — English  Ladies  in  India. — Intercourse  with 
Natives. — Unmannerly  Englishmen. — Exceptional  Behavior. 

A  CHEERY,  bright-eyed,  broad-shouldered  man,  some  way 
on  the  younger  side  of  thirty,  who  could  laugh  louder  than 
any,  and  beat  most  of  us  at  a  game  upon  the  Residency  bill¬ 
iard-table,  was  Captain  George  Stevenson,  of  the  British  In¬ 
dia  Company’s  steamship  JEuphrates,  which  on  her  arrival 
from  Bussorah  had  cast  anchor  about  three  miles  from  Bu¬ 
shire.  A  vessel  drawing  seventeen  feet  of  water  can  not 
with  safety  get  much  nearer.  Captain  Stevenson’s  gig  had 
been  pulled  ashore  by  six  Indian  sailors — the  crew  of  the 
Euphrates  did  not  include  a  single  European — neatly  dressed 
in  blue,  and  with  blue  caps  surrounded  with  a  scarlet  turban. 
Another  steamer  had  been  lying  for  two  days  before  the  Res¬ 
idency  under  rather  peculiar  circumstances.  She  was  loaded 
with  pilgrims,  who  had  received  tickets  for  Bussorah;  but 
the  ship  was  chartered  only  to  Bushire,  and  the  captain  pro¬ 
fessed  to  be  ignorant  that  the  pilgrims  had  shipped  for  the 
more  distant  port.  The  political  resident  w^as  informed  that 
the  pilgrims  would  not  allow  the  captain  to  come  on  shore  in 


STREETS  OF  BUSIIIRE. 


429 


order  to  explain  his  difficulty;  they  held  him,  in  terror  for 
his  life,  a  hostage  and  surety  for  the  performance  of  the  con¬ 
tract  which  had  been  made  Avith  them;  and  for  my  own  part 
I  was  delighted  to  see  Colonel  Ross  firmly  on  the  side  of  the 
pilgrims.  He  sent  off  the  assistant  secretary  to  communicate 
to  the  captain  his  opinion,  which  was  that  he  (the  captain) 
Avould  do  Avell  to  fulfill  the  engagement  declared  upon  the 
tickets,  and  carry  the  pilgrims  on  to  Bussorah.  It  was,  I 
think,  owing  to  the  praiseworthy  firmness  of  the  political 
resident  that  the  British  flag  did  not  become,  in  the  eyes  of 
these  two  hundred  Persians,  a  deception  and  a  snare,  and 
that  they  were  not  landed,  many  of  them  without  food  or 
money,  upon  a  shore  of  which  they  knew  nothing,  and  where 
they  had  no  means  of  communication  with  their  homes. 
Worse,  indeed,  might  have  liappened;  and  in  a  fight  between 
the  pilgrims  and  the  British  officers  of  the  vessel,  the  justly 
exasperated  Moslems  would  probably  have  succeeded  in  mak¬ 
ing  the  ship  their  own  at  a  terrible  cost  of  life.  We  were  all 
very  glad  to  see  the  vessel  steaming  quietly  around  toward 
Bussorah. 

After  rain,  the  narrow  streets  of  Bushire  are  in  many  places, 
sometimes  from  Avail  to  wall,  covered-  Avith  green  pools  of 
stagnant  filth,  through  which  one  may  pass  dry-shod  on 
bricks  or  blocks,  Avhich  have  long  been  used  as  stepping- 
stones  across  these  shalloAV  cess -pools.  These  filthy  places 
might  be  filled  up  by  a  hundred  men  in  one  day’s  labor ;  but 
throughout  Persia  there  is  no  regard  Avhatever  for  sanitary 
considerations.  He  Avill  not  fail  to  prefer  the  Avork  of  nature 
to  that  of  man,  Avho,  after  gazing  over  the  blue  Avaters  of  the 
gulf,  plunges  into  the  labyrinth  of  mud -Avails  and  noisome 
passages,  through  the  squalid  bazaar,  among  the  mud  hovels 
of  Bushire  to  the  other  side  of  the  narroAV  peninsula  on  Avhich 
the  tOAvn  stands.  But  Avhen  the  horrors  of  this  middle  pas¬ 
sage  are  overpassed,  the  vieAV  is  even  more  beautiful  than  that 


430 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


from  the  front  of  the  Residency,  including  the  sweep  of  the 
sandy  Mashillah,  and  the  snowy  highlands  of  Persia. 

About  four  miles  from  Bushire,  a  scientific  expedition, 
directed  by  Dr.  Andreas,  an  Armenian,  and  carried  on  at  the 
cost  of  the  Berlin  Government,  has  been  for  some  time  en¬ 
gaged  in  excavating  a  mound  which  evidently  inclosed  the 
ruins  of  an  ancient  temple.  That  the  mound  contained  mat¬ 
ter  of  interest  appeared  probable  to  some  officers  of  the  In¬ 
dian  navy,  who  examined  it  at  the  time  of  the  British  Military 
Expedition  in  1856-’57.  Architecturally,  Dr.  Andreas’s  dis¬ 
coveries  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  significant.  From 
the  ruins  he  has  unearthed,  it  seems  that  the  building  over 
which  the  mound  had  formed  was  used  as  a  “fire-temple;” 
but  the  material  of  the  walls  included  bricks  which  can  be 
made  to  speak — bricks  having  one  of  the  sides  covered  with 
cuneiform  inscriptions.  These  bricks  evidently  formed  part 
of  some  older  Avork,  from  Avhich  they  had  been  carried,  and 
then  built  into  this  structure  near  Bushire.  I  have  seen  sev¬ 
eral  of  these  bricks ;  they  are  rather  longer  than  the  common 
brick,  and  very  hard ;  the  cuneiform  letters  are  raised  on  one 
side,  and  have  endured  twenty-five  hundred  years’  wear  and 
tear  Avith  surprising  steadfastness.  We  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  Dr.  Andreas  and  his  colleague  at  the  Residency  be¬ 
fore  Ave  embarked  for  Bombay.  But  in  quitting  Bushire,  we 
were  not  to  leave  Persia.  M/^e  had  nearly  six  hundred  miles 
to  travel  doAvn  the  gulf,  before  passing  the  boundary  Avhich 
sepaiates  Persia  from  Beloochistan  at  the  little  promontory 
of  Gwadur. 

There  is  nothing  in  nature  more  delicious  than  the  spring 
sunshine  of  southern  latitudes ;  than  the  exhilarating  air  of 
such  a  morning  as  that  on  Avhich  Captain  Stevenson  took  us 
off  to  the  Euphrates  in  his  gig,  pulled  by  six  Suratees  of  his 
Clew.  The  first  of  those  ill-advised  shwe  circulars  AV’^hich  the 
GoA’crnment  issued — and  withdrcAV,  from  the  storm  of  an^er 


SLAVERY  IN  THE  PERSIAN  GULF. 


431 


they  evoked — had  just  reached  us,  and  formed  the  subject  of 
much  talk.  It  was  well  known  that  the  supposed  difficulties 
of  naval  commanders  in  the  Persian  Gulf  had  been  the  cause 
of  this  movement.  It  was  believed  in  the  gulf  that  Sir  Lewis 
Pelly  was,  more  than  any  one  else,  responsible  as  the  adviser 
of  the  Government  in  this  unfortunate  business.  He  had  been 
political  resident  at  Bushire,  and  had  found,  as  all  resident 
officers  in  such  places  must  discover,  that  the  real  difficulty  in 
the  matter  rests  with  officers  on  shore  rather  than  with  naval 
commanders.  At  Bushire,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  pop¬ 
ulation -is  held  in  slavery;  it  is  considered  by  those  well  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  facts  that  the  proportion  of  slaves  increases 
in  descending  the  gulf.  But  I  could  find  no  one  who  wished 
for  more  definite  instructions.  The  agent  for  the  British  In¬ 
dia  Company’s  line  of  steamers  trading  from  Baghdad  and 
Bussorah,  through  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  gulf, 
to  Kurrachee  and  Bombay,  told  me  he  had  had  in  seven  years 
but  one  case  brought  to  his  knowledge.  One  of  his  captains 
informed  him,  on  this  occasion,  that  he  had  two  fugitive  slaves 
on  board  his  ship,  and  asked  what  was  to  be  done  with  th*em. 
This  occurred  six  years  ago,  and  the  agent  wrote  to  the  then 
political  resident,  referring  the  matter  to  him.  He  acted  as 
political  residents  are  generally  disposed  to  act ;  that  is,  with 
a  leaning  toward  the  slave-owner’s  claim  for  the  restoration 
of  his  “  property.”  He  did  not  write  a  reply  (British  offi¬ 
cers  do  not  like  to  commit  themselves  to  slavery  in  black  and 
white)  ;  he  sent  a  verbal  message  to  the  agent  to  the  effect 
that  he  might  give  up  the  slaves  if  he  pleased ;  but  the  agent 
found  the  captain  not  at  all  disposed  to  take  this  view  of  his 
duty.  Sailors  are  generally  opposed  to  the  notion  of  surren¬ 
dering  slaves  to  the  ignominy  of  their  former  life,  and  to  the 
cruelty  which  they  well  know  the  attempt  to  escape  will  bring 
upon  them  by  way  of  punishment.  He  declared  that  he 
should  take  the  fugitives  to  Bombay,  and  so  he  did. 


432 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


We  had  to  row  three  miles  from  the  shore  at  Bushire  to 
where  the  Euphrates  lay  at  anchor,  and  to  pass  the  resident’s 
gun-boat,  which  is  supposed  to  be  specially  concerned  with 
the  suppression  of  the  slave-traffic,  and  the  maintenance  of 
general  peace  upon  the  waters  of  the  gulf.  The  chief-engi¬ 
neer,  a  Parsee,  joined  us  as  a  fellow-passenger.  He  had  been 
four  years  on  this  particular  service,  and  could  speak  English. 
He  said  that,  during  those  years,  ten  or  a  dozen  slaves  had 
come  on  board  the  gun-boat.  Sometimes  they  had  swum  off 
from  the  shore  at  night;  some  had  “  come  on  board  with  the 
coals others  had  been  found  hiding  in  the  ship.  *  In  no 
case,  he  said,  was  there,  on  the  part  of  the  captain,  or  officers, 
or  crew,  any  desire  to  send  them  ashore.  If  a  slave  swum  off 
at  night,  the  men  on  watch  were  always  ready  to  give  the 
poor  wretch  a  hand  on  to  the  deck ;  and  if  a  fugitive  slave 
'  were  discovered  when  the  vessel  was  at  sea,  it  was  just  the 
same — every  body  was  ready  to  pass  him  on  to  Bombay,  or 
to  some  place  where  he  would  be  free  and  safe.  But  it  gen¬ 
erally  happened,  said  the  Parsee  engineer,  that  the  owner  on 
shore  discovered  his  loss,  and  at  once  suspected  the  British 
ship.  If  the  owner  came  off  by  himself,  and  even  if  he  were 
permitted  to  look  through  the  vessel,  the  probability  was, 
said  the  engineer,  that  he  would  not  find  his  missing  slave. 
The  slave-owners,  however,  are  generally  wiser  than  this,  and 
succeed  in  clothing  their  claims  with  the  authority  of  the 
Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  Empress  of  India. 
Wherever  it  is  possible,  they  resort  to  the  political  resident, 
acquaint  him  with  their  loss  and  their  suspicions,  and  obtain 
from  him  a  letter  to  the  commander  of  the  vessel,  requesting 
that,  if  the  fugitive  slave  be  on  board,  he  may  be  given  up. 

In  most  cases,  the  political  resident  being  the  superior  of¬ 
ficer,  this  of  course  amounts  to  an  order ;  and  the  engineer 
said  this  was  the  plan  so  generally  adopted  that  it  might  be 
said  that  it  was  only  when  the  slaves  came  from  “foreign 


PEARL-FISHEKIES  OF  BAHREIN. 


433 


ground,”  wliicli  lie  explained  to  mean  any  part  of  the  coast 
upon  which  there  was  neither  resident,  nor  agent,  nor  consul, 
that  they  were  taken  on,  or  passed  on,  to  Bombay.  The  fact 
appears  to  be,  that,  owing  to  the  leaning  of  the  resident  Brit¬ 
ish  officers  to  the  ideas  and  interests  of  the  slave -owners 
among  whom  they  dwell,  there  is  a  very  small  chance  of  es¬ 
cape  for  a  fugitive  slave  where  the  British  crown  is  repre¬ 
sented,  and  a  very  good  chance  wherever  the  British  flag  is 
flying  at  sea,  out  of  sight  and  out  of  reach  of  any  British  au¬ 
thority  on  shore.  I  met  with  a  captain  of  one  of  the  British 
Indian  Company’s  vessels,  who  had  twice  allowed  his  ship  to 
be  searched  by  slave-owners  upon  a  requisition  from  the  polit¬ 
ical  resident  at  Muscat.  A  first-class  engineer  in  the  same  em¬ 
ploy,  a  Scotchman,  who  had  served  in  the  gulf  for  three  years, 
told  me  that  he  had  seen  but  one  fugitive  slave  on  board  his 
ship.  He  found  this  man  hidden  in  the  screw -tunnel  (the 
casing  in  which  the  rod  connecting  the  screw  with  the  en¬ 
gines  is  placed),  and  allowed  him  to  work  his  passage  as  a 
coal-trimmer  to  Bombay. 

Of  the  large  number  of  slaves  upon  the  shores  of  the  gulf, 
both  on  the  Persian  and  the  Arabian  side,  it  is  certain  that 
but  very  few  attempt  escape.  All  the  severe  and  dangerous 
work  of  the  pearl-fisheries  is  sustained  by  slaves,  the  result  of 
these  fisheries  being,  as  I  have  said,  estimated  as  worth  four 
hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year.  There  is  abundant  evi¬ 
dence  that  the  pearl-divers  prefer  to  risk,  the  perils  of  the  wa¬ 
ter,  which  swarms  with  sharks,  rather  than  be  flogged  on 
shore;  and  I  am  surprised, hearing  of  the  lashings  with  wire 
whips,  and  of  other  tortures  to  which  they  are  subject,  it  so 
rarely  happens  that  one  or  two  swim  off  to  any  ship  display¬ 
ing  the  British  flag. 

That  the  difficulty,  such  as  it  is,  culminates  in  the  Persian 
Gulf,  must  be  admitted.  The  numerous  sovereign  tribes 
which  hold  and  rule  the  shores  of  the  gulf  are  restrained  from 

19 


4.34 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


hostilities  and  piracy  by  the  influence  of  the  resident  officers 
of  the  British  Indian  Government,  who  believe  that  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  their  authority  would  be  much  more  difficult  if 
they  appeared  to  acquiesce  in  that  which  is  regarded  as  the 
confiscation,  for  the  advantage  of  the  British,  of  Arab  or  Per¬ 
sian  property.  Most  people  find  it  easier  to  adopt  a  local 
opinion  than  to  maintain  the  ideas  of  the  higher  society  in 
,  Which  they  have  lived.  I  met  lately  with  an  account  of 

harem  life  in  Turkey,”  written  by  an  Englishwoman,  who 
had  lived  as  governess  for  six  years  in  the  house  of  a  great 
pasha  upon  the  Bosphorus.  She  appeared  to  see  no  degra¬ 
dation  of  her  sex  in  the  ceremonious  dinner-party,”  in  which 
the  pasha  sat,  suri-ounded  with  his  three  wives  and  their  chil¬ 
dren,  together  with  the  children  of  his  slave  wives.  These  last 
performed  the  offices  of  the  table ;  and,  though  not  thought 
worthy  to  sit  with  their  own  children,  were  privileged  to  v/ait 
upon  them.  As  to  the  pasha’s  property  in  his  slaves,  she  ap¬ 
peared  to  think  it  quite  right  that  the  eunuchs  should  look 
closely  after  them,  because  it  must  be  remembered  that,  in  any 
attempt  to  get  away,  they  were  not  only  leaving  a  kind  master, 
but  were  “  thieving  themselves,”  a  feat  which  seemed,  in  her 
eyes,  to  be  an  act  of  most  atrocious  wickedness.  With  regard 
to  the  fugitive-slave  question,  which  is  for  the  pr-esent  rele¬ 
gated  to  its  former  condition  by  the  substitution  of  a  colorless 
and  indefinite  circular,  the  result  of  my  inquiries  in  the  Per¬ 
sian  Gulf  was,  that  I  could  find  no  one  who  desired  more  pre¬ 
cise  instructions ;  and  it  appeared,  from  the  evidence  I  could 
obtain,  that  a  fugitive  slave  is  rarely  met  with,  and  that  when 
seen,  his  chances  of  escape  are  excellent,  provided  the  British 
crown  is  not  represented  on  the  land  from  whence  he  has 
taken  flight. 

After  staying  a  few  hours  before  Lingah,  in  the  province 
of  Laristan,  we  steamed  on  to  Bunder- Abbas  (landing-place 
of  Shah  Abbas),  the  principal  place  of  entry — for  it  is  not  a 


BUNDER- ABBAS. — CAPE  JAHSK. 


435 


])ort — in  the  Persian  province  of  Kirman.  We  had  been  two 
days  at  sea,  and  were  glad  to  land  upon  the  shelly  beach  at 
Bunder- Abbas.  But  the  people,  black  and  yellow,  pressed 
upon  us,  in  their  eagerness  to  see  an  Englishwoman,  and  our 
progress  in  the  squalid  town  and  bazaar  was  slower  than  we 
desired.  Many  of  the  women  bore  upon  their  faces,  by  way 
of  covering,  a  half-mask  of  stiffened  cotton  upon  a  bamboo 
frame,  finished  with  a  metal  ornament  upon  the  nose,  and 
supported  upon  the  face  by  a  string  passing  over  the  head. 
The  town  looked  like  a  sore  upon  the  beauteous  landscape. 
To  have  wandered  on  the  shore  strewed  with  pink  shells,  or 
inland  among  the  palm-trees  in  sight  of  the  mountains,  would 
have  been  delightful.  But  the  people  of  Bunder -Abbas 
would  allow  us  neither  pleasure.  Where  we  walked  they 
followed,  laughing,  screaming,  “  larking  ” — as  English  street- 
boys  would  say.  If  we  stopped  to  pick  up  a  shell,  twenty 
hands  were  indiscriminately  filled  with  shells,  and  the  con¬ 
tents  pressed  upon  us. 

This  is  the  “Gumberoon”  of  “Lalla  Rookh;”  and  over 
the  waters  of  the  gulf  we  could  see  the  pale  coasts  of  the 
Island  of  Ormus,  the  commencement,  now  neglected,  of  our 
Indian  Empire.  Probably  the  most  ancient  traces  of  Euro¬ 
pean  occupation  are  to  be  found  in  this  island,  which  was 
once  the  emporium  of  Portuguese,  and  subsequently  of  Brit¬ 
ish  commerce.  Sailing  up  the  coasts  of  India,  this  was  the 
first  detached  land — the  first  spot  in  which  those  who  were*' 
secure  of  the  sea,  but  not  of  the  land,  could  establish  them¬ 
selves  with  safety.  Ormus  is  now  the  home  of  a  mixed  but 
very  scanty  population,  engaged  for  the  most  part  in  fishery 
— catching  sharks  for  the  sake  of  trading  in  their  fins  and 
bones,  and  edible  fish  for  sale  along  the  coast.  We  had  love¬ 
ly  weather  in  the  Straits  of  Ormus,  and  anchored  in  smooth 
water  under  Cape  Jahsk,  where  Ave  soon  obtained  a  number 
of  beautiful  shells.  On  the  flat  and  feverish  land  of  Jahsk 


436 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


there  is  a  large  station  of  the  Indo-Persian  Telegraph,  inhab¬ 
ited  by  half  a  dozen  young  Englishmen,  who  are  attracted  by 
a  salary  which,  to  a  youth,  appears  high,  into  a  most  unwhole¬ 
some  place,  with  little  chance  of  promotion.  The  pale-faced 
lads  whom  we  saw  there  assured  us  that  in  summer  Jahsk 
was  the  hottest  place  in  the  world ;  and  this  is  not  far  from 
its  general  reputation.  We  were  touched  by  the  sight  of 
their  faces ;  not  bronzed  with  sunny  health,  as  are  those  of 
many  Anglo-Indians,  but  paler  than  those  of  Lombard  Street 
clerks,  who  so  very  rarely  see  the  sun.  Most  of  the  clerks  at 
Jahsk  were  resolved  to  ‘'give  it  up  ”  at  the  end  of  their  three 
years’  engagement;  but  I  suspect  that  when  that  time  comes, 
and  they  have  to  face  the  alternative  of  recommencing  life  in 
England  or  India,  they  will  settle  into  that  state  of  acquies¬ 
cence  or  chronic  discontent,  which,  in  those  who  survive,  is 
so  often  the  sequel  to  the  first  impressions  of  life  in  low  lati¬ 
tudes. 

Near  the  sand  and  rocks  upon  which  we  landed  there  was 
a  village  of  bamboo  huts,  inhabited  by  the  servants  of  the 
Telegraph  staff ;  and  about  half  a  mile  distant  were  the  laro-e, 
low  buildings  of  the  office,  which  included  a  billiard -room 
and  comfortable  quarters  for  the  clerks.  It  was  at  Jahsk 
that  I  first  heard  of  “pegging”  as  a  familiar  habit.  Every 
one  of  the  pale  clerks  whom  I  met  with  was  full  of  kindness  ' 
and  hospitality,  of  which,  however,  his  first  notion  seemed  to 
•  be  that  I  was  in  want  of  a  “  peg,”  upon  which  the  peg-holder 
of  the  Anglo-Indian,  the  brandy  -  bottle,  was  produced.  To 
see  the  thermometer  at  ninety  degrees  in  the  shade,  and  a 
pale  youth— toward  whom,  as  a  fellow-countryman,  in  that 
far -distant  island,  one  feels  an  indescribable  tenderness — 
looking  for  support  to  a  bottle  of  brandy,  is  a  pitiful  sight ; 
and  it  is  one  which,  even  in  the  flying  glimpses  we  had  of 
Anglo-Indian  life,  appeared  far  too  common. 

A  fresh  wind  was  blowing,  as  ^yQ  rounded  Cape  Jahsk,  and 


A  master-mariner’s  grievance. 


437 


steamed  out  from  the  coast  on  to  the  broad  bosom  of  the  In¬ 
dian  Ocean.  After  dark,  Captain  Stevenson  set  out  a  griev¬ 
ance  which  certainly  deserves,  and  I  understand  has  since  re¬ 
ceived,  the  attention  of  Government.  He  is  one  of  a  highly 
respectable  class  of  British  subjects  who  have  obtained  cer¬ 
tificates  as  navigating  officers  from  an  Indian  Board  of  Ex¬ 
aminers.  Possessed  of  a  certificate  as  master  from  the  Board 
in  Bombay,  he,  and  those  in  a  similar  position,  are  empow¬ 
ered  to  take  charge  of  any  vessel  trading  from  or  into  any 
Indian  port.  If  the  Directors  of  the  British  India  Company 
ask  him  to  take  charge  of  a  homeward-bound  ship,  he  can  do 
so,  and  navigate  her  into  the  port  of  London  or  Liverpool, 
or  to  any  port  in  or  belonging  to  the  United  Kingdom.  But 
there  the  validity  of  this  certificate  ends ;  and  the  command¬ 
er,  who  is  thought  by  uninsured  owners  trustworthy  and  com¬ 
petent  for  the  navigation  of  their  vessel  into  a  British  port, 
can  not  bring  the  same  vessel  out  of  port,  unless  he  has  been  ex¬ 
amined  and  has  obtained  a  certificate  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
If  he  has  this  certificate  his  Indian  diploma  is  worthless,  be¬ 
cause  the  British  certificate  is  valid  everywhere  and  the  In¬ 
dian  certificate  is  not.  Captain  Stevenson  had  been  placed 
in  this  position  ;  he  had  been  offered  the  command  of  a  large 
steamship  chartered  for  London ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  de¬ 
cline  the  flattering  proposal,  because  he  would  have  to  leave 
the  port  of  London  as  a  passenger  only  in  the  vessel  which 
he  was  held  competent  to  command  on  the  homeward-bound 
voyage. 

There  seems,  in  these  circumstances,  to  be  a  grievance  de¬ 
manding  a  remedy,  which  is  surely  simple  and  easy.  Either 
the  Indian  boards  are  incompetent,  or  their  certificates  should 
be  held  valid  throughout  the  dominions  of  the  queen-empress. 
So  far  as  I  can  learn  from  inquiry,  I  am  led  to  believe  that 
the  Indian  examiners  at  the  chief  ports  of  the  three  govern¬ 
ments  are  highly  competent,  and  that  nothing  but  advantage 


438 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


would  result  from  giving  force  to  their  certificates  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  Navigation  demands  education  as  well  as 
expel  ience,  and  charts  are  brought  to  such  perfection  that 
perhaps  the  more  important  work  of  the  master  of  a  ship  is 
peifoimed  in  his  cabin.  No  well-trained  captain  finds  difii- 
culty  along  a  surveyed  and  lighted  coast  which  he  sees  for 
the  fiist  time,  and  if  it  be  said  that  the  man  examined  in 
London  or  Liverpool  is  likely  to  be  better  acquainted  with  the 
coasts  of  the  Lritish  isles  than  one  who  seeks  a  certificate  in 
Calcutta  or  Bombay,  it  is  easy  to  reply  that 'the  candidate  in 
London  has  perhaps  the  less  valuable  knowledge,  for  he  is 
likely  to  find  his  danger  upon  the  unlighted  shores  of  Eastern 
Africa  and  Southern  Asia,  the  rocks  of  which  are  probably 
known  to  the  candidate  in  Bombay.  I  advised  the  preparation 
of  a  petition  to  Parliament,  which  I  hope  will  now  be  needless. 

Next  day  we  approached  the  coast  of  Beloochistan,  and, 
lounding  the  highland  of  Capo  Gwadur,  anchored  before  the 
town,  where  the  shore  is  strewed  with  the  bones  of  sharks, 
which  are  caught  and  killed  for  the  value  of  their  fins.  The 
eastern  boundary  of  Persia,  as  settled  by  Sir  Frederick  Gold- 
smid,  and  agreed  to  by  the  Shah,  touches  the  sea  at  this  point. 
The  coast  near  the  shore  is  generally  flat  and  uncultivated — a 
sandy  desert.  We  were  there  in  the  last  days  of  February, 
and  at  that  season  there  are,  near  the  villages,  a  few  patches 
of  gieen,  insignificant  oases  in  the  arid  expanse.  Beyond 
Gwadur  we  met  with  several  large  turtles  asleep  on  the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  ocean ;  but  though  rifles  were  plentiful,  and  bul¬ 
lets  whizzed  about,  w^e  W’ere  not  successful  in  securing  the 
material  for  soup.  Two  bullets  flew  off  from  a  turtle’s  back 
as  though  his  shell  had  been  the  plates  of  an  iron-clad.  Twen¬ 
ty-four  hours  late]*,  .the  projecting  point  of  highland  whicli 
marks  the  w^esternmost  boundary  of  British  India  came  in 
sight,  and  then  a  low*er  headland,  over  which  we  could  see 
.the  topmasts  of  vessels  in  Kurrachee  harbor. 


HARBOR  OF  KURRACHEE. 


439 


What  a  change  is  marked  in  passing  from  the  wretched 
shores  of  Persia,  with  no  harbor  in  north  or  south,  to  the 
moorings  at  Kurrachee,  surrounded  by  the  most  valuable 
results  of  the  intelligent  labor  of  Europe !  The  beacon  in 
the  white,  English-looking  light-house ;  the  steam-dredges  at 
work ;  the  huge  iron  vessels,  long  and  narrow,  built  for  the 
Suez  Canal,  and  locally  known  as  ditchers,”  are  pouring  out 
cargoes  of  railway  iron  for  the  Indus  Railway;  one  steam¬ 
ship  is  coiling  from  the  shore  miles  of  telegraph-cable,  for 
the  repair  of  a  disaster ;  another  is  steaming  behind  us  with 
the  mails  from  England.  Order,  activity,  utility,  nowhere 
seen  by  us  for  months  past,  appear  here  to  be  natural  and 
constant.  We  are  hardly  at  anchor  before  the  Euphrates  is 
boarded  by  a  dozen  boat -wallahs,  merchants  or  peddlers, 
loaded  with  bundles  of  shawls  from  Cashmere,  inlaid  boxes 
and  needle-work  of  Scinde,  caps  and  trinkets  of  Kurrachee. 
They  are  proof  against  taunts  and  trouble.  They  will  expose 
a  hundred  articles  on  the  deck  without  promise  of  sale,  and 
submit  to  the  exposure  of  their  petty  knaveries  with  unruf¬ 
fled  manner.  Kew  arrivals  probably  give  a  higher  price  for 
these  goods  than  that  for  which  the  same  articles  could  be 
purchased  in  Regent  Street.  It  is  easy  to  find  a  good  car¬ 
riage  at  the  landing-stage,  which  is  three  or  four  miles  from 
the  town  and  cantonment  of  Kurrachee.  We  drove,  in  the 
first  place,  to  the  Travelers’  Bungalow,  intending  to  stay  two 
nights  on  shore,  but  were  repelled  by  the  dirt  of  the  placQ, 
by  the  sight  of  the  nasty  bedding,  the  grimy  look  of  the 
heavy  wooden  furniture,  and  the  general  uncleanliness  of  the 

rooms. 

The  roads  about  Kurrachee  are  of  unsurpassable  excel¬ 
lence,  wide  (perhaps  too  wide  for  a  tropical  country,  where 
the  shade  of  the  road-side  is  desired  by  all)  and  smooth,  as 
well  made  as  any  in  or  out  of  London.  This  appears  remark¬ 
able  within  a  day’s  journey  from  the  miserable  tracks  of 


440 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAYAlSr. 


Beloochistan.  One  can  never  be  more  disposed  to  admit  the 
material  benefits  which  the  English  rule  has  conferred  upon 
India  than  in  passing  quickly,  as  we  did,  from  the  countries 
of  the  Persian  Gulf.  From  the  landing-place  to  the  canton¬ 
ment  of  Kurrachee  the  ground  is  low  and  flat;  from  the 
waters  of  the  harbor  the  roof  of  the  Frere  Hall,  four  or  five 
miles  distant,  can  be  seen  high  above  the  surrounding  houses. 
Tyhen  we  visited  the  hall,  there  were  sixteen  natives  doing 
the  work  of  two  Europeans  in  waxing  and  polishing  the  floor 
piepaiatory  to  a  ball,  which  was  to  take  place  in  the  evening. 
The  narrow  streets  of  the  native  town  are  full  of  interest 
The  costumes  are  mostly  white :  it  is  in  their  head-dress  that 
the  people  of  India  are  most  fantastic,  and  perhaps  they  are 
nowhere  more  so  than  in  Scinde.  The  orthodox  Scinde  hat, 
which  is  like  an  Englishman’s  hat  inverted— the  wide,  straight 
brim  being  at  the  top,  the  head  fitting  into  the  brimless  cyl¬ 
inder— is  one  of  the  most  curious ;  but  scarlet  is  the  prevail¬ 
ing  color  in  turbans. 

The  peculiar  faults  of  Indian  society  had  never  occurred  to 
me  before  I  landed  at  Kurrachee :  the  weariness  of  a  society 
in  which  the  aims  and  hopes  of  all  have  one  goal;  in  which  all 
bear  the  same  stamp  of  officialism ;  in  which  that  very  valua¬ 
ble  element  in  society,  the  leisure  class,  which  asks  for  noth¬ 
ing,  and  which  has  such  a  refining  influence  upon  the  views  and 
sentiments  of  the  employed  classes,  is  conspicuously  absent. 

X  can  fancy  that  in  the  Australian  colonies  there  is  already 
the  nucleus  of  an  established  class,  which  is  not  engaged  in 
money-making,  nor  in  pushing  its  way  to  offices  of  the'state, 
and  which  does  not  consider  a  return  to  England,  loaded  with 
accumulations  of  years  of  exile,  to  be  the  grandest  hope  of 
life.  But  it  is  quite  certain  that  there  is  no  such  class  in  In¬ 
dia.  There  is  an  intelligent,  active,  moving  class,  all,  it  may 
be  said,  of  one  rank  and  sort,  in  their  origin  from  the  great 
middle  class  of  English  people,  existing  in  an  unnatural  man- 


FAULTS  OF  INDIAN  SOCIETY. 


441 


ner,  and  dominated  by  two  prepossessions — the  hope  of  pro¬ 
motion  on  the  line  to  which  all  belong,  and  the  hope  of  return 
to  the  British  islands,  from  which  all  have  set  out. 

Even  in  such  a  hasty  passing  glance  as  we  had  at  Indian 
life,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  these  men  are  part  of  the  very  flow¬ 
er  of  our  nation,  some  of  the  best  men  of  their  time.  But  no 
men  can  be  impervious  to  the  influences  which  surround  their 
every-day  existence  for  the  best  part  of  their  lives,  and  in  In¬ 
dian  society  there  is  not  sufficient  diversity  to  render  it  agree¬ 
able.  It  is  the  same  with  the  women  as  with  the  men ;  but 
in  their  case,  the  faults  of  Indian  society,  due  to  its  circum¬ 
stances,  are  more  marked,  and  even  more  perceptible.  Rob¬ 
bed  by  the  climate  of  their  children ;  overcharged  to  the  lips 
with  the  gabble  of  the  station  or  cantonment ;  with  a  nice 
knowledge  of  the  relative  advantages  of  civil  and  military, 
covenanted  and  uncovenanted,  service ;  their  feminine  hopes 
and  delights  and  triumphs  are  all  upon  the  same  line — suc¬ 
cess  in  the  ball-room,  promotion  for  their  masculine  friends, 
the  opening  of  a  ‘^Europe  box,”  and  a  house  in  Kensington 
as  the  full  and  final  reward  of  life. 

Practically,  there  is  no  admixture  of  the  ruling  with  the 
subject  population.  The  Government  of  India  is,  in  the  main, 
just  and  liberal;  occasionally,  in  its  zeal,  it  attempts  an  im¬ 
possible  combination  of  despotic  and  constitutional  forms. 
The  younger  officers  are  sometimes  guilty  of  gross  rudeness 
to  natives  of  the  higher  classes,  and  of  harsh  treatment  to  the 
lower-class  natives  in  their  service.  This  injurious  and  de¬ 
testable  conduct  is,  as  a  rule,  abandoned  in  the  moment  when 
an  officer  rises  high  enough,  or  becomes  by  accident  so  con¬ 
spicuous  as  to  be  subject  to  public  opinion  at  home.  The 
great  value  of  the  influence  of  English  opinion  upon  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  India  is  exhibited  in  the  fact  that  the  most  re¬ 
sponsible  officials  are  invariably  the  most  benign,  considerate, 
and  just  in  their  dealings  with  the  natives  of  India.  Of  the 

19-^ 


442 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


natives,  many  are  now  put  high  in  place  and  authority,  many 
are  reputed  friends  of  Englishmen.  Yet  if,  as  I  believe,  the 
few  cases  which  have  come  under  my  observation  are  typical, 
this  ‘‘friendship”  is  not  friendship;  it  is  nothing  more  than 
intercourse,  regulated  and  sweetened  by  polite  forms,  of  which 
none  are  greater  masters  than  the  high-class  natives  of  India. 

But  if  the  intercourse  of  Indians  with  English  must  be  that 
of  a  subject  with  a  governing  race,  contumelious  treatment 
of  natives  by  Englishmen  should  be  avoided,  and,  when  pos¬ 
sible,  should  be  punished.  During  our  stay  at  Kurrachee,  I 
heard  the  particulars  of  a  case  which  exhibited  a  gross  in¬ 
stance  of  this  misconduct.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  then  in 
India,  and  a  native  prince  had  chartered  two  British  steam¬ 
ships  for  the  conveyance  of  himself  and  suite  to  Bombay. 
Into  the  smaller  vessel,  his  highness  was  accompanied  by  his 
ministers  and  personal  attendants ;  the  larger  was  destined 
for  his  escort,  amounting  to  about  two  hundred  armed  men. 
When  these  last  went  on  board,  the  English  captain  demand¬ 
ed  the  surrender  of  their  arms,  and  he  did  this,  as  I  was  in¬ 
formed,  in  no  very  gracious  manner.  The  men  had  not  ex¬ 
pected  to  be  disarmed,  and  thought  it  implied  degradation. 
To  have  explained  fully  and  kindly  to  them  that  it  was  the 
necessary  rule  of  the  service,  and  applied  to  British  as  well  as 
native  troops,  would  have  been  easy  and  satisfactory.  But 
the  English  captain  not  only  offended  the  whole  of  the  force 
by  his  manner  in  demanding  their  arms;  he  inflicted  an  un¬ 
necessary  wound  upon  the  commanding  ofiicer,  a  first  -  class 
passenger,  in  asking  also  for  his  sword.  Tliis  was  an  outrage 
to  which  an  English  ofiicer  would  not  have  been  liable,  and  I 
was  toM  by  an  eye-witness  of  the  scene  how  pained  he  was  to 
observe  the  emotion  of  tlie  native  ofiicer  in  complying  with 
this  insulting  demand.  From  all  that  one  hears  of  the  con¬ 
duct  of  Englishmen  in  India,  I  most  readily  and  gladly  admit 
that  behavior  of  this  sort  is  exceptional. 


BOJEBAY. 


443 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Bombay. — The  Serapis  in  Harbor. — Suburbs  of  Bombay. — Parsee  Dead. — 
Towers  of  Silence. — Hindoo  Cremation-ground. — Cotton  Manufacture  in 
India. — Report  of  Indian  Commission. — Neglect  of  Indian  Government. 
— A  Bombay  Cotton  Factory. — Hours  of  Factory  Labor. — Seven  Weeks’ 
Work. — Natives  of  India. — Expenditure  of  Indian  Government. — The 
Great  Absentee  Landlord.  —  Giievance  of  Cultivators.  —  Their  Enemies, 
the  Money-lenders.  —  English  and  Native  Equity.  —  The  Suez  Canal.  — 
Landing  at  Ismailia. — English  at  the  Pyramids. — Alexandria. — “Cleo¬ 
patra’s  Needle.” — Proposed  Removal  to  England. — Condition  of  the  Ob¬ 
elisk. — Recent  Excavation. — Captain  Methven’s  Plan. — Removal  in  an 
Iron  Vessel. — Cost  of  Removal. — Egypt  and  the  Khedive, — Preparing  for 
Mr.  Cave. — Sham  Civilization. — The  Horse- trampling  Ceremony. — En¬ 
glish  en  voyage. — Egypt  and  Persia. — Customs  Officers  at  Alexandria. — 
Egypt  and  Turkey. 

r 

The  white  Serapis  and  lier  iron-clad  companions  were  ly¬ 
ing  at  rest  in  the  glistening  waters  of  Bombay  harbor  when 
we  entered  upon  that  magnificent  anchorage.  Most  people 
know  the  unimpressive  aspect  of  the  town  from  the  harbor, 
with  the  salient  angle  of  the  Apollo  Bunder,  or  wharf,  for  a 
centre-piece.  But  those  who  liave  never  been  in  Bombay, 
who  know  that  really  handsome  city  only  by  pictures  and 
photographs,  will  hardly  believe  how  bad  are  the  hotels,  or 
how  beautiful,  on  a  March  morning  at  sunrise,  are  the  sub¬ 
urbs  of  Bombay.  As  to  vehicles,  there  is  novelty  in  the  har¬ 
nessed  bullocks  ambling  through  the  streets;  but  the  newest 
fashion  of  carriage,  the  tram-car,  interested  me  more  than  all. 
A  tram-car  might  be  registered  as  one  of  the  trade-marks  of 
democracy.  The  train-way  will  do  great  things  in  breaking 
down  the  barriers  of  caste  among  the  natives,  and  of  lord- 


444 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN-. 


ly  iDrejiidice  on  tlie  part  of  Englishmen.  To  sec  the  open 
benches  of  tlie  Bombay  tram-cars  loaded  -with  white -robed 
Parsecs,  with  Hindoos,  with  Mussulmans,  with  one  or  two 
lightly  clad  Europeans;  to  see  this  equal  representation  of 
castes  and  classes  in  a  carriage  to  which  all  are  free  to  mount, 
with  no  distinction  whatever — is  a  lesson  in  the  ways  of  civ¬ 
ilization.  And  there  is  no  better  plan  of  seeing  the  busy  life 
and  teeming  population  of  the  Hindoo  quarter  of  Bombay 
than  to  ride  through  it  upon  the  tram -way;  but  to  see  the 
suburbs  of  Bombay  in  their  vernal  beauty,  drive  in  early 
morning  to  the  Towers  of  Silence,  where  the  dead  of  the 
Parsee  community  are  exposed  to  the  vultures.  The  road 
winds  and  undulates  between  gardens,  in  which  plants  such 
as  in  the  temperate  zone  are  regarded  as  the  choicest  and 
most  splendid  exotics,  wave  their  grand  foliage,  and  extend 
a  most  grateful  shade,  in  the  fullest  luxuriance  of  tropical 
splendor. 

There  are  villas  belonging  to  the  wealthy  Parsees  of  Bom¬ 
bay  as  elegant  in  architecture,  and  as  rich  in  their  adornment, 
as  any  in  the  outskirts  of  London  or  Liverpool.  Riding  in 
this  direction  has  another  advantage.  By  a  slight  diver¬ 
gence,  one  may  obtain  practical  experience  for  the  guidance 
of  choice  in  the  disposition  of  the  dead.  M^ith  no  great  dis¬ 
tance  between  them,  there  are  the  Towers  of  Silence,  the  Hin¬ 
doo  cremation*ground,  and  the  European  grave-yard.  In  the 
Parsee  towers  there  is  no  exi30sure  or  exhibition  of  the  dead, 
except  to  the  vultures,  which  pounce  upon  the  body.  I  asked 
a  Parsee  whether  he  did  not  shudder  at  the  thouoht  of  such 
treatment  of  his  own  body  after  death.  Better  than  worms,” 
he  replied,  pointing  to  the  grave-yard. 

But  to  unaccustomed  eyes  the  sight  of  these  winged  de¬ 
stroyers,  sitting  expectant  upon  the  topmost  stone  of  the 
high  towers,*  is  most  repulsive.  TV^hen  a  corpse  is  brought 
in,  the  friends  and  mourners  deliver  the  body  to  the  guard- 


HINDOO  CREMATION-GROUND. 


445 


ians  of  the  tower,  by  whom  it  is  placed  on  a  grating  near  the 
top,  but  entirely  concealed  from  view.  The  remains  of  these 
bodies  lie  upon  the  grating  until  the  whitened  bones  fall  to 
the  foot  of  the  tower.  One  may  almost  tell  by  the  action  of 
the  vultures  when  a  body  is  being  placed.  There  is  a  great 
flapping  of  wings,  and  a  rising  of  the  birds  into  view  from 
their  horrid  feast,  when  the  attendants  of  the  tower  mount 
to  place  the  newly  dead.  While  this  is  being  done,  the  top  of 
the  tower  is  thickly  surrounded  with  the  foul  birds,  perched 
close  together;  and  those  who  are  a  mile  distant  may  know 
when  the  arrangement  is  ended,  and  the  dead  body  left  alone, 
by  watching  how  the  vultures  flutter  down  and  out  of  sight, 
to  fasten  on  the  corpse. 

Europeans  are  not  admitted  to  the  walled  inclosure  in 
which  the  Hindoos  of  Bombay  burn  their  dead.  This  cre¬ 
mation-ground  is  about  a  hundred  yards  long  and  thirty 
wide,  bounded  on  one  side  by  a  high  road.  On  the  other 
side  the  soil  of  the  adjoining  grave-yard  rises  so  high  that, 
standing  there,  one  can  observe  the  processes  of  cremation. 
By  the  side  of  the  wall  next  the  road  there  is  a  long  shed, 
in  which  the  family  and  friends  of  the  deceased  range  them¬ 
selves.  At  one  time  I  saw  three  bodies  burning  upon  as 
many  pyres.  The  attendants  appeared  to  be  very  skillful  in 
selecting  and  building  up  the  fire-wood,  with  four  strong  tim¬ 
bers  at  the  corners,  of  sufficient  substance  to  hold  the  burn¬ 
ing  wood  of  the  pyre  together  until  the  body  is  consumed 
and  these  sustaining  posts  are  charred,  and  fall  upon  it  in 
ashes.  On  the  ground  in  front  of  the  mourners’  shed  they 
build  the  pyres;  the  body  is  laid  in  a  shroud  upon  wood,  and 
covered  with  sufficient  to  insure  complete  destruction.  The 
fires  blaze  away  in  the  fierce  sunlight,  the  attendants  occa¬ 
sionally  stepping  forward  to  pull  the  logs  together  with  a 
lonn-  staff,  which  each  one  carries  in  his  hands;  and  in  about 
two  hours  from  the  first  cry  of  the  mourners,  when  the  body 


446  THEOUGII  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

is  first  enveIoj3ed  in  flame,  the  pyre  has  crumbled  into  a  deep 
bed  of  fiery  ashes,  which  are  scattered  by  the  wind.  I  did 
not  find  that  the  operation  was  offensive;  but,  then,  I  was 
upon  the  windward  side. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  and  notable  facts  in  Bombay 
is  the  increase  and  the  character  of  the  cotton  manufacture. 
Familiar  with  that  industry  during  my  four  years’  residence 
in  Lancashire  as  assistant  commissioner,  in  the  time  of  the 
Cotton  Famine,  I  determined  to  look  closely  into  the  mode 
of  conducting  the  manufacture  without  factory  laws  in  Bom- 
bay ;  and,  with  that  view,  obtained  permission  to  inspect  one 
of  the  largest  and  best  of  the  factories.  I  saw  quite  enough 
in  one  hour  to  convict  the  Government  of  India  of  culpable 
delay  in  regard  to  a  subject  which  seems  to  me  to  call  for 
immediate  action. 

A  commission  was  appointed  in  1875  to  inquire  into  the 
application  of  the  factory  law\s,  as  enforced  in  England,  to 
India;  and  this  commission  reported  in  July  of  that  year, 
the  majority  being  hostile  to  any  legislation.  Yet  the  facto¬ 
ry  to  which  I  am  about  to  refer  is,  both  in  regard  to  the 
hours  of  infant  labor  and  to  construction,  better  than  the 
a\eiage  of  those  that  must  have  come  under  the  commission- 
eis  notice.  If  gentlemen  do  not  think  that  circumstances 
such  as  these  betray  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  Executive 
Goveinment,  it  is  not  likely  they  will  be  converted  by  the 
under -secretary’s  promise  of  “further  inquiries  in  Bromah 
and  Suiat.  Judging  from  the  conduct  of  these  commission- 
eis,  and  the  tenor  of  this  reply  by  Lord  George  Hamilton  to 
a  question  put  to  him  by  Mr.  Anderson  in  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  in  February  of  the  current  year,  the  Indian  Govern¬ 
ment  appears  to  bo  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  party  inter¬ 
ested  in  opposing  legislation,  by  adopting  costly  methods  of 
delay  and  circumlocution. 

The  establishment  I  visited  had  about  fortv  thousand 


A  BOMBAY  COTTOX  FACTORY. 


447 


spindles,  and,  together  with  the  loom-shed,  employed  about 
eight  hundred  people,  including  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  building  was  in  no  important  respect  dissimilar  from 
the  Lancashire  factories,  and  the  machinery,  of  Lancashire 
make,  was  of  the  best  quality  and  construction.  The  hands 
were  leaving  the  mill  for  their  meagre  midday  rest  of  half  an 
hour  (the  only  rest  they  have  in  the  whole  of  the  working 
day),  just  as  I  was  entering  the  counting t house.  I  had  a 
very  good  opportunity  for  observing  their  physique.  Tlie 
path  by  which  they  passed  me  was  so  narrow  that  with  my 
sun-umbrella  I  could  have  touched  any  one  of  them.  N^ever 
have  I  seen  such  a  wretched  crowd  of  working-people— the 
men  pale  and  haggard,  the  women  and  children  drooping,  and 
gray  with  cotton-dust.  The  men  had  been  working  continu¬ 
ously  from  a  quarter-past  6  a.m.  to  1  f.m.,  the  time  of  my  ar¬ 
rival  ;  the  women  and  children  from  7  a.m.  The  hours  of 
work  are — for  men,  from  a  quarter-past  6  a.m.  to  a  quarter 
past  6  p.M. ;  for  women  and  children,  from  7  a.m.  to  5  p.m. 
They  have  only  one  half-hour  for  rest  and  food;  and  as  I 
sat  waiting  for  their  return,  the  thirty  minutes  seemed  very 
short. 

At  the  door  by  ray  side,  when  they  re-entered  the  mill, 
stood  the  superintendent,  with  a  stick  in  his  hand,  “just,”  as 
lie  said,  “to  give  a  tap  to  them  as  comes  late,  for  you  must 
be  master  of  ’em.”  The  time  was  half-past  one ;  and  the  lit¬ 
tle  children,  some  of  them  not  more  than  seven  years  old — 
exhausted  with  the  previous  six  hours  of  continuous  labor — 
were  ao-ain  at  work  in  the  terrible  atmosphere  of  a  Bombay 
factory  for  another  three  and  a  half  hours.  But  this  cruelty, 
involving,  of  course,  the  utter  abandonment  of  education — a 
cruelty  from  which  the  British  child  is  protected  by  lavv — is 
not  tha  worst  to  which  these  Hindoo  children  are  subjected. 
During  a  period  of  seven  weeks,  this  factory  had  been  closed 
only  for  three  days.  There  is  no  observance  of  any  regular 


448 


THEOUGH  PEESIA  BY  CAEAVAN. 


day  of  rest;  and  for  forty-six  out  of  the  forty-nine  days  pre¬ 
ceding  my  visit,  these  children  had  toiled  from  7  a.m.  to  5 
p.M.  at  their  unhealthy  and  exhausting  labor. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  on  every  floor  of  the 
mill  the  hands  were  exposed  to  many  and  great  dangers  from 
unprotected  bands  and  wheels,  and  from  insufiicienriy  fenced 
shafting;  these  are  the  invariable  features  of  factory  labor 
without  any  official  regulations.  On  the  whole,  I  can  not 
conceive  a  case  more  clear  and  simple ;  the  Hindoo  children 
are  surely  entitled  to  the  same  protection  which- the  law  has 

so  long  afforded  to  young  persons”  in  the  United  Kino-, 
dom.  ° 

With  legard  to  the  natives  of  India  generally,  I  had  of 
course,  in  a  short  stay  at  Kurrachee  and  Bombay,  no  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  looking  widely  or  deeply  into  their  condition.  But 
it  appears  that  there  is  a  strong  disposition  in  the  minds  of 
leading  men  in  the  Government  of  India  toward  fair  treat¬ 
ment,  and  even  liberality,  in  official  dealings  with  natives. 
There  are,  however,  two  grievances,  both  wide-spread,  and 
both  of  the  highest  importance,  which  are  heard  of  in  every 
part  of  India,  and  which  appear  to  baffle  the  wisest  and  most 
conscientious  legislators. 

Tiue,  says  the  native  subject  of  the  Empress  of  India, 
‘'you  have  given  us  good  government.  You  are  mercilessly 
punctual  and  exacting  in  your  demands,  and  the  unfailing 
regularity  and  uniformity  of  these  charges  are,  some  say,  al¬ 
most  perhaps  as  painful  as  would  be  the  varying  leniency 
and  rapacity  of  native  rulers.  But,  under  your'^rule,  that 
which  we  have,  we  possess  in  safety ;  where  we  lose,  is  in  the 
fact  that  the  expenditure  of  Government  and  of  the  govern¬ 
ing  body  is  not  made  in  India,  but  in  England.”  The  com¬ 
plaint  is,  indeed,  very  much  the  same  as  that  which  comes 
with  great  force  from  Ireland.  The  crown  of  Great  Britain, 
like  a  great  absentee  landlord,  collects  a  vast  rent-roll  in  In- 


expe:nditure  of  English  government. 


449 


dia,  which  is  expended  in  the  savings  of  civil  and  military 
servants  transmitted  and  retained  in  England — in  their  cloth¬ 
ing,  and  in  the  many  articles  of  food  and  luxury  which  are 
purchased  in  England.  Even  the  trappings  of  state  pageant¬ 
ry  bear  the  mark  of  London.  ‘^In  all  this,”  say  the  natives, 
we  lose  greatly.  If  w^e  had  native  rulers,  they  would  not  be 
so  invariably  just,  nor  would  peace  and  order  be  so  secure; 
they  perhaps  would  lavish  money  in  fighting,  and  squander 
other  sums  in  semi -barbaric  display.  But  all  their  outlay 
would  be  with  us,  and  among  ourselves.”  It  can  not  be 
denied  that  there  is  very  much  which  is,  to  say  the  least, 
plausible  in  this  line  of  argument. 

For  the  other  grievance  the  means  of  remedy  or  alleviation 
are  less  difficult.  This  relates  to  the  land,  and  to  the  property 
of  the  cultivators.  They  borrow  small  sums  at  high  rates  of 
interest ;  they  are  ignorant ;  they  are  sometimes  unfortunate ; 
their  simple  agriculture  is  peculiarly  at  the  mercy  of  the  sea¬ 
sons.  Principal  and  interest  are  added  and  re-added;  the 
money-lenders  are  perhaps  dishonest,  and  obtain  acknowledg¬ 
ment  of  a  document  the  real  nature  of  the  contents  of  which 
is  unknown  to  the  poor  ignorant  peasant.  At  last  the  debt, 
or  alleged  debt,  with  its  quickly  mounting  interest,  has  become 
big  enough  to  bear  comparison  wdth  the  value  of  the  unhappy 
rayah’s  interest  in  the  land,  upon  which  the  toil  of  his  whole 
life  has  been  bestowed.  Then  he  is  hurried  by  the  money¬ 
lender  before  the  English  magistrate;  the  debt,  or  alleged 
debt,  is  proved.  By  what  process  this  proof  is  accomplished 
the  peasant  is  often  profoundly  ignorant.  No  account  is  taken 
of  the  circumstances;  the  inexorable  logic  of  written  evidence 
— the  verdict  of  the  British  rule — is  all  against  him;  judg¬ 
ment  is  given,  and  in  the  end  his  little  property  is  sold  to  the 
money-lender,  who  has  from  first  to  last  made  a  very  success¬ 
ful  transaction.  Meanwhile  the  peasant,  with  a  heart  full  of 
bitterness,  has  gone  to  ruin,  bearing  with  him,  in  his  destitu- 


450  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAH. 

tion,  a  miserable  sense  that  he  has  been  jostled  out  of  his 
homestead  with  the  sanction  of  an  English  judge. 

The  Englishman  urges  that,  under  native  rule,  things  would 
be  much  the  same.  Men  must  pay  their  debts.  ''No,”  says 
the  native,  it  would  not  be  so  under  nativ^e  rule.  3^ati\’e 
justice  is  wilder,  less  terribly  regular,  less  legal,  but  probably 
more  equitable.  The  rayah,  under  native  rule,  would  have  a 
better  chance  against  the  money-lender.”  And  in  this  conclu¬ 
sion  the  native  objector  is,  no  doubt,  to  some  extent  justified. 
Plere,  then,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  legislative  problems 
for  the  consideration  of  Indian  legislators.  Would  it  be  ju¬ 
dicious  we  can  not  deny  that  it  is  possible — to  giv^e  tenure 
which  should  be  free  from  responsibility  for  debt — to  give 
the  cultivator  something  which  the  money-lender  could  not 
claim?  Every  man  would  like  to  be,  if  even  to  some  extent 
only,  invulnerable,  so  that  in  whichever  direction  “the  slings 
and  arrows  of  outrageous  fortune  ”  might  fly,  these  could  not 
wound  him  irreparably.  Every  one  would  like  to  have  se¬ 
curity  against  being  stripped  naked  by  creditors,  and  turned, 
helpless  and  shivering,  upon  the  desert  of  utter  and  extreme 
poverty.  W^ould  not  the  end  be,  that  the  borrowing  would 
continue  with  heightened  rates  of  interest,  and  the  rayah, 
undei  this  coveted  j^i’otection,  would  fall  into  pov'erty  more 
extended  and  miserable  than  even  he  has  yet  known  ? 

That  which  struck  me  most,  in  passing  through  the  Suez 
Canal,  is  the  seeming  insignificance  of  the  Avork.  In  some 
places,  the  water-surface  is  not  more  than  ninety  feet  wide ; 
and,  standing  upon  the  deck  of  a  ship  of  three  thousand  tons 
bill  den,  one  must  look  almost  perpendicularly  over  the  vessePs 
side  to  see  the  water  of  the  canal.  We  stuck  fast  for  an  hour 
in  such  a  place,  the  head  of  our  ship  pressing  upon  one  side, 
the  stern  upon  the  other,  of  the  narrow  channel.  This,  of 
course,  involved  a  similar  delay  for  the  vessels  which  followed 
us.  On  gaining  the  inland  waters  of  the  wide  expanse  which 


Cleopatra’s  needle. 


451 


is  still  called  “  the  Bitter  Lakes,”  ships  are  allowed  to  travel 
at  full  speed ;  and  great  efforts  are  made  in  order  to  obtain 
precedence  in  the  succeeding  narrows. 

We  landed  at  Ismailia,  and  proceeded  by  railway  to  Cairo, 
a  town  which  resembles  Algiers  in  that  it  is  French  in  one 
part,  and  thoroughly  Mussulman  in  another.  A  more  or  less 
accurate  notion  of  the  bright  bazaars  of  Cairo  is  a  common 
possession ;  and  how  the  English  go  to  the  Pyramids,  trotting 
through  the  dust  upon  sprightly  donkeys,  is  well  known. 

At  Alexandria  1  fulfilled  a  promise  in  writing  the  follow¬ 
ing  letter  to  Lord  Henry  Lennox,  then  First  Commissioner 
of  Works,  concerning  the  removal  of  ‘^Cleopatra’s  i^eedle,” 
a  work  wLich  he  had  been  urged  to  undertake : 

“Hotel  Abbat,  Alexandria,  April  1st,  1876. 

“Dear  Lord  Henry  Lennox, — A  long  time  has  elapsed 
since  our  conversation  in  July  last  with  reference  to  the  re¬ 
moval  of  the  obelisk  commonly  known  as  ‘  Cleopatra’s  I^eedle,’ 
as  proposed  by  General  Sir  James  Alexander  to  the  Metro¬ 
politan  Board  of  Works.  Detained  in  Persia  by  an  attack 
of  fever,  and  by  unlooked-for  difficulties  in  traveling,  I  have 
arrived  in  Egypt  later  by  more  than  three  months  than  I  in¬ 
tended  when  I  left  England. 

“  The  taking-away  of  the  ancient  monuments  from  a  coun¬ 
try  which  they  were  originally  designed  to  adorn  is  a  policy 
against  which  there  is  much  to  be  said.  It  is  almost  pitiful 
to  contemplate,  upon  the  now  carefully  protected  Acropolis  of 
Athens,  a  Caryatid,  rudely  carved  in  wood,  doing  duty  with 
her  four  lovely  sisters  of  marble  in  bearing  the  entablature  of 
the  Erechtheum,  while  the  original  is  in  London,  instructing 
the  art- world,  perhaps  no  better  than  would  a  plaster 'cast,  in 
the  beauty  and  grace  of  Greek  sculpture.  But  these  consider¬ 
ations  do  not  apply,  with  any  considerable  force,  to  the  pros¬ 
trate  obelisk  now  lying  upon  the  shore  of  the  new  port  of  Al- 


452 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


exanclria.  It  forms  no  part  of  any  structure;  it  is  not  f)ro- 
tected,  nor  in  any  way  cared  for,  by  the  Egyptians ;  and  with¬ 
in  fifty  yards  of  the  ground  in  which  the  ‘English’  column 
is  lying,  there  is  another,  apj)arently  of  the  same  age  and  size, 
carved  with  hieroglyphics  of  similar  character.  It  appears 
to  me,  therefore,  that  the  English  jieople  could,  if  they  jilease, 
appioj^riate  this  gift  free  from  any  fear  or  feeling  that  in 
^  doing  so  they  would  be  ‘  spoiling  the  Egyptians.’ 

“  The  desirability  of  removing  the  obelisk  resolves  itself 
into  two  questions — the  cost  and  the  value  and  interest  of 
the  monument  as  compared  with  the  necessary  expenditure. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  feasibility  of  removal.  An 
opinion  has  certainly  prevailed  in  England  that  the  obelisk 
is  so  much  defaced  and  broken  as  to  have  lost  all  interest. 
But  I  will  venture  to  say  that  this  opinion  has  not  been  form¬ 
ed  by  any  one  who  has  seen  the  whole  of  three  sides  which 
have  been  exposed  by  the  excavations  recently  made  by  Sir 
James  Alexander.  The  opinion  was  formed  when  but  very 
little  more  than  the  upper  side  of  the  base  was  visible  —  a 
valueless  part  which  appears  never  to  have  been  sculptured, 
and  to  have  been  intended  for  burial  in  the  foundation  when 
the  obelisk  was  in  position.  The  column,  as  at  present  ex¬ 
posed,  is  at  once  seen  to  be  a  monument  of  great  value  and 
interest,  one  which,  not  only  from  its  antiquity,  but  also  from 
its  quality  as  a  monolith,  would  be  specially  notable  in  Lon¬ 
don,  which,  unlike  most  of  the  capital  cities  of  Europe,  pos¬ 
sesses  no  adornment  of  this  character.  The  English  people 
can  not  see  in  their  own  country  a  carved  stone  even  ap¬ 
proaching  the  dimensions  of  this  colossal  obelisk  of  red  gran¬ 
ite.  As  to  the  condition  of  the  monument,  I  have  examined 
three  of  the  four  sides,  and  there  is  no  part  of  any  one  of  the 
hieroglj^phics  the  carving  of  which  is  not  distinctly  trace¬ 
able.  The  edges  of  the  carving  are  somewhat  worn,  and  the 
angles  of  the  obelisk  rounded ;  but  the  interest  of  the  monu- 


CONDITIOX  OF  THE  OBELISK. 


453 


ment  is  in  no  place  substantially  impaired,  nor  is  there  dis¬ 
cernible  any  important  fracture  of  the  stone.  The  dimen¬ 
sions  of  the  obelisk  are  :  total  length  from  extremity  of  base 
to  apex,  sixty-six  feet ;  seven  feet  square  at  base,  and  four 
and  a  half  feet  square  at  base  of  apex.  The  weight  is  prob¬ 
ably  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons. 

“In  considering  the  method  and  cost  of  removal  to  En¬ 
gland,!  have  had  the  great  advantage  of  the  assistance,  on  the 
ground,  of  Captain  Methven,  the  senior  captain  and  commo¬ 
dore  of  the  fleet  of  steamships  belonging  to  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  Company.  The  base  of  the  obelisk  is  less  than 
twenty  yards  from  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean;  and 
within  about  a  hundred  yards  there  is  a  depth  of  two  and  a 
half  fathoms  of  water.  It  has  been  suggested  to  float  the 
obelisk  by  attaching  to  it  a  sufficient  quantity  of  timber.  But 
this  is  a  very  crude  proposal,  apart  from  the  fact  that  no  suf¬ 
ficient  quantity  of  timber  is  obtainable  in  this  almost  treeless 
country.  Undoubtedly  it  would  be  possible  to  remove  and 
to  ship  the  obelisk  by  constructing  a  railway  on  piles  for  such 
a  distance  as  would  admit  of  the  aj^proach  of  a  vessel  capable 
of  carrying  it  securely  to  England.  In  this  case,  the  obelisk 
would  be  suspended  in  slings  from  running-gear,  and  moved 
out  to  sea  until  it  hung  over  its  destined  position  in  the  ves¬ 
sel.  But  the  shore  is  not  the  most  suitable  for  this  plan, 
which,  moreover,  would  involve  a  very  large  expenditure. 

“  The  position  of  the  obelisk  is  favorable  for  the  adoption 
of  a  third  method,  which  appears  both  to  Captain  Methven 
and  to  myself  to  be  the  most  easy,  safe,  and  practicable,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  the  least  costly,  of  any  that  have  been  sug¬ 
gested.  The  ground  in  which  the  obelisk  now  lies  seems  suf¬ 
ficiently  firm  (with  proper  supports  at  the  sides  of  the  nec¬ 
essary  excavation)  to  sustain  girders  from  which  the  column 
could  be  slung  without  any  change  in  its  position.  To  insure 
a  proper  distribution  of  the  weight,  it  would  be  desirable  that 


454 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


these  girders  should  rest  on  iron  plates,  and  that  they  should 
be  of  gi  eater  substance  in  the  centre,  where  the  weight  of  the 
obelisk  would  be  borne.  Captain  Methven  is  confidently  of 
opinion  that  the  obelisk  could  be  safely  conveyed  to  England 
in  an  iron  vessel  not  exceeding  four  hundred  tons  of  build¬ 
ers’  measurement,  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  length,  and 
drawing,  when  loaded,  not  more  than  six  feet  of  water.  This 
decked  iron  vessel,  or  barge,  would  be  constructed  in  England 
and  sent  in  pieces  to  Alexandria,  where  it  would  be  put  to¬ 
gether  in  the  space  to  be  excavated  beneath  the  suspended 
obelisk,  the  channel  necessary  to  get  to  deep  water  being  at 
the  same  time  formed  by  a  steam-dredge,  or,  if  the  shore  be 
locky,  by  blasting — a  method  which  has  been  very  success- 
fully  adopted  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  would  be  requisite 
here  by  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company  at  Bombay. 
When  the  vessel  was  ready  to  receive  the  obelisk,  the  inter¬ 
vening  walls  of  earth  between  the  base  of  the  stone  and  the 
sea  would  be  thrown  down,  and  the  incoming  water  would 
raise  the  vessel  to  its  burden.  The  iron  barge  could  then  be 
towed  into  the  harbor,  when  it  would  be  decked,  and  have  so 
much  freeboard  added  as  appeared  desirable.  Captain  Meth¬ 
ven  feels  quite  sure  that  by  any  competent  steamship  of  her 
majesty  s  navy  the  vessel  could  be  towed  to  England  without 
danger  of  damage  to  the  towing  ship,  or  risk  of  losing  the 
obelisk,  regard  being  had  to  the  season,  and  to  the  state  of  the 
barometer,  on  quitting  this  port  and  that  of  Gibraltar.  Final¬ 
ly?  I  would  say  that  Captain  M^ethven  seems  to  be  of  opinion 
that  all  this  could  be  accomplished  at  a  cost  of  about  five 
thousand  jinunds.  Yours,  faithfully,  Arthur  Arnold. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  H.  G.  Lennox,  M.  P.” 

In  Egypt,  we  see  Mohammedanism  through  a  veneer  of 
Paiisian  civilization.  The  Khedive,  a  Mussulman  in  gants  eJe 
Pdris^  is  in  fact  the  entrepreneur  of  the  countrv,  concerning’’ 


EGYPT  AND  THE  KHEDIVE. 


455 


which  liis  highness  deals  with  the  financiers  of  Europe.  His 
personality  as  a  ruler  never  appears  to  rise  out  of  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  entertaining,  concessionizing,  and  loan-mongering,  in 
which,  to  the  outside  world,  his  highness  seems  always  to  be 
engaged.  Mr.  Cave  had  just  left  Egypt  when  we  arrived  in 
the  country ;  and  during  our  railway  journey  between  the  two 
capitals,  Cairo  and  Alexandria,  an  incident  occurred,  which  I 
give  for  what  it  is  worth,  but  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  very 
truly  illustrative  of  the  Government  of  Egypt.  Certainly  it 
displayed  what  Egyptians  think  practicable  and  probable  in 
the  way  of  government  by  ministers  of  the  Khedive.  A  well- 
known  banker  of  Alexandria,  a  European,  was  traveling  in 
the  same  carriage  with  us,  and,  on  the  way,  we  had  some  con¬ 
versation.  At  an  unimportant  station  he  was  greeted  by  two 
men  of  the  country,  cultivators  or  corn-dealers  of  a  superior 
class,  Mohammedans,  who  at  once  engaged  with  him  in  ear¬ 
nest  talk.  On  resuming  the  journey,  I  asked  my  fellow-trav¬ 
eler  what  had  been  the  subject  of  discussion,  so  full,  judging 
from  the  manner  of  those  engaged,  of  interest  and  amuse¬ 
ment. 

Oh !”  he  replied,  they  were  talking  to  me  about  Mr. 
Cave’s  report.  They  say  that  in  anticipation  of  Mr.  Cave’s 
inquiry,  the  Khedive  ordered  the  collection  of  a  year  and  a 
half’s  taxes  in  one  sum,  and  in  advance,  and  that  the  amount 
was  then  set  down  as  one  year’s  payment,  in  order  to  deceive 
the  British  financier.  And  the  worst  of  it  is,”  he  added,  ‘‘  the 
wretched  fellahin  expect  that  the  tax -.gatherers  will  come 
round  all  the  same,  and  treat  the  payment,  which  was  said  to 
be  for  a  year  and  a  half,  as  an  extraordinary  affair — a  sort  of 
backshish  for  the  Khedive.” 

In  passing  through  Egypt,  I  looked  with  all  the  care  I  could 
command  to  find  traces  of  that  intelligent  government  which 
has  been  so  often  attributed  in  England  to  the  Khedive.  I 
compared  what  I  observed  with  all  that  I  have  seen  in  Tur- 


456 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


key  and  Persia;  and  though  in  this  comparison  there  was  a 
marked  difference,  with  much  advantage  on  the  side  of  Egypt, 
I  saw  everywhere,  in  native  hideousness,  in  the  rural  districts 
and  in  the  towns,  beneath  the  sham  civilization  of  modern 
Egypt,  the  horrid  features  of  slavery  and  its  twin,  polygamy, 
with  the  universal  degradation  which  follows  in  the  train  of 
these  institutions  of  Mohammedanism.  The  people  of  Egypt 
are  far  less  civilized,  less  intelligent,  incomparably  more  igno¬ 
rant  and  cruel,  than  the  most  wretched  of  the  Christian  sub¬ 
jects  of  the  Porte  ;  and  Egypt  differs  notably  from  European 
Turkey  in  the  fact  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
people  are  Mussulmans.  There  are  many  in  England  who, 
in  the  devotion  of  their  lives  and  language  to  horses,  seem  as 
much  disposed  to  serve  as  to  rule  the  four-footed  animal; 
and  that  a  horse  can  show  itself  superior  to  men  is  officially 
demonstrated  at  least  once  a  year  in  Cairo,  when  the  mounted 
Sheik-ul-Islam  rides  over  the  prostrate  bodies  of  fanatics,  oi-, 
as  some  say,  of  hirelings.  The  unwilling  quadruped  shoved 
forward  by  the  hands  of  modern  Egyptians,  its  brute  nature 
revolting  from  a  cruelty  to  men,  while  they,  the  bipeds,  affect 
to  regard  the  animal  as  the  instrument  of  a  miracle,  is  a  spec¬ 
tacle  the  human  degradation  of  which  is  perhaps  deepened  by 
the  presence  of  cultivated  Europeans  as  interested  spectators. 
My  impression  is,  that  a  good  many  English  €Th  voyogc  (and 
the  French  and  Germans  are  very  often  no  better)  are  attract¬ 
ed,  rather  than  repelled,  by  disgusting  exhibitions ;  and  that  if 
only  a  spurious  halo  of  propriety  were  thrown  over  the  scene 
by  the  name  of  religion,  they  would  throng  to  observe  circum¬ 
cision,  01  human  sacrifice,  or  even  the  culinary  ojierations  of 
cannibals.  Yet  as  to  the  last  I  am  perhaps  wrong,  for  in  that 
there  would  be  an  element  of  personal  danger.  It  is  then  they 
shrink  it  is  then  they  show  a  surprising  keenness  of  appre¬ 
hension.  See  how  they  run  ”  when  cholera  has  invaded  their 
hotel,  or  the  waves  their  steamboat.  But  they  will  stand,  in 


EGYPT  AND  TUKKEY. 


457 


seeming  approval,  while  the  people  of  the  foreign  country  in 
which  they  are  sojourners  degrade  and  deface  humanity ;  they 
will  smile  at  the  performance  of  horrid  cruelties  of  which  the 
law  would  take  cognizance  at  home ;  they  will  flock  to  wit¬ 
ness  the  performance  of  exercises  associated  with  gross,  and 
to  them  patent,  superstitions ;  they  will  do  all  this,  without  a 
sign  of  disgust  or  disapproval. 

From  Persia,  Egypt  differs  most  obviously.  Egypt  prop¬ 
er  is  fertile,  flat,  and  well  watered  by  the  Nile  and  its -tribu¬ 
taries,  and,  above  ail,  it  is  nearer  to  the  civilization  and  to  the 
highways  of  the  commerce  of  Western  Europe  than  are  j^arts 
of  that  continent  in  the  east  of  Russia.  But  in  regard  to  the 
“  poverty  of  the  poor,”  or  to  their  oppression  in  the  name  of 
the  State,  I  doubt  if  there  is  much  advantage  on  the  side  of 
the  Egyptian.  I  was  very  much  reminded  of  Persian  officials 
w^hen  we  were  passing  the  ordeal — for  it  is  an  ordeal — of 
getting  out  of  the  port  of  Alexandria.  While  the  Khedive’s 
officer  was  examining  our  baggage,  half  a  dozen  porters  and 
boatmen  cried  continually,  Give  him  something “  Give 
him  a  rujDee “  Give  him  half  a  rupee  “  Give  him  a  cup  of 
coffee while  the  eyes  of  the  customs  officer  twinkled  with 
liope  of  the  usual  bribe.  I  have  heard  that  a  main  obstacle 
to  the  success  of  Egyptian  railways  is  the  impossibility  of 
preventing  the  officials  from  illicit  trading  in  free  passages, 
and  I  can  well  believe  it.  From  the  Khedive,  Avho  emulates 
the  Padishah  upon  the  Bosphorus,  in  multiplying  his  palaces 
at  the  cost  of  his  miserable  subjects  and  of  deluded  bond¬ 
holders,  to  the  murderous  deeds  of  the  semi-savages  in  his 
service  upon  the  Nile,  or  in  Abyssinia,  or  in  Bulgaria,  the 
Egyptian  viceroyalty  shows  .itself  more  prosperous,  but  not 
less  marked  with  extravagance  and  excess,  than  the  supreme 
and  suzerain  power  in  Constantinople. 

20 


458 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

“From  the  Levant.”— Sunnis  and  Slii’alis.— Turkish  Government  and  Turk¬ 
ish  Debt.— Fuad  and  Midhat  Pashas.— Not  a  “Sick  Man.”— “Best  Po¬ 
lice  of  the  Bosphorus.”— Keligious  Sanction  for  Decrees.— The  Council 
of  State.  Qui  est-ce  qu  on  trompe  ?” — Murad  and  Hamid. — Error  of  the 

West.  Precepts  of  the  Cheri. — Authority  of  the  Sultan. — Non-Mussul¬ 
man  Population.— Abd-ul-Hamids  Hatt.— A  Foreign  Garrison.— Hatt-y- 
houmayoun  of  1856.— Failure  of  Promises.— Fetva  of  Sheik-ul-Islam.— 
Non-Mussulmans  and  the  Army.— Firman  of  December,  1875.— Sir  Hen¬ 
ry  Elliot  and  the  Porte.— Conscription  in  Turkey. 

A  SERIES  of  letters,*  published  in  1868,  contained  our  im¬ 
pressions  of  travel  in  Cvreece  and  in  European  Turkey.  We 
then \isited  dhessaly,  Roumelia,  Constantinople  and  the  Bos¬ 
phorus,  Bulgaria,  Roumania,  Belgrade,  and  Croatia.  I  have 
no  intention  of  retracing  this  ground  on  paper,  and  my  pres¬ 
ent  leference  to  the  affairs  of  Turkey  will  only  be  such  as  is 
necessary  to  exhibit  the  connection  which  exists  between  the 
Government  of  the  Sultan  and  the  Mohammedan  religion. 

I  piopose  to  devote  the  remaining  space  in  this  volume  to 
a  suivey  of  the  general  condition  of  the  Mohammedan  peo¬ 
ples  referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapters,  as  affected  by  the 
doctrines  of  the  founder  of  Islam  set  forth  in  the  Koran. 
And  in  this  survey  the  principal  place  must  be  given  to  the 
political  cii  cumstances  of  Turkey,  which  is  the  head-quarters 
of  that  larger  division  of  Mohammedans  known  as  Sunnis,  as 
Persia  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  smaller,  but  still  powerful, 
division  known  by  tJie  name  of  Shi’ahs. 


*  From  the  “Levant.”  By  Arthur  Arnold.  Chapman  &  Hall,  1868. 


FUAD  AND  MIDHAT  PASHAS. 


459 


The  prestige  of  the  Caliphate  must  have  been  greatly 
shaken  by  the  catastrophe  which  ended  in  the  suicide  of 
Abd-ul-Aziz,  and  by  the  puppet  reign  of  the  unhappy  Mu¬ 
rad.  But  these  events  have  called  attention  to  the  real  posi¬ 
tion  of  the  Sultan,  which,  during  twenty  years  of  peace,  had 
been  somewhat  overlooked,  possibly  because  in  those  years 
the  conquests  of  the  Turks  have  been,  not  territorial,  but 
financial.  The  Turkish  Government  has  been  the  most  suc¬ 
cessful  spendthrift  of  our  time.  But  the  day  of  reckoning 
arrived,  and  the  Turk  could  no  longer  provide  the  bait  with 
which  for  twenty  years  he  had  been  catching  a  rich  provision 
from  Europe.  General  Ignatieff  thought  the  bubble  would 
have  burst  at  least  eighteen  months  before  the  declaration  of 
insolvency  actually  occurred.  But  when,  at  last,  it  broke,  this 
sreueration  saw  that  which  was  for  most  of  them  a  strange 
sight.  They  were  enlightened  as  to  the  basis  of  the  Sultan  s 
power ;  they  saw  him  regarded  in  that  which  is  his  true  char¬ 
acter,  an  acclaimed  chief  rather  than  an  hereditary  sovereign; 
the  head  of  Islam,  with  power  bestowed  and  established  un¬ 
der  the  sanctions  of  the  Koran. 

If  Fuad  Pasha  (whose  disciple.  Midhat,  is  striving  for  su¬ 
premacy)  had  an  ideal  system  of  government,  it  was  that  which 
a  man  far  greater  than  he,  but  with  a  mind  of  similar  tenden- 
cies,  had  expounded  in  “Les  Idees  Kapoleonniennes.”  To  re¬ 
construct  the  Caliphate,  to  reform  it  into  a  liberal  despotism 
seated  upon  the  heads  of  a  dumb  democracy — this  was  the 
thought  of  the  great  minister  with  whose  death  is  supposed 
to  have  departed  the  glory  of  the  reign  of  Abd-ul-Aziz.  The 
revolution  which  cast  that  wretched  Sultan  from  an  eminence 
of  power,  awful  in  its  solitude  and  responsibility  to  those 
who  can  conceive  its  full  extent  and  authority,  to  a  condition 
of  restraint  and  imprisonment  which  rendered  life  unendur¬ 
able,  was  proclaimed  as  a  reversion  to  the  policy  of  Fuad 
Pasha.  Midhat  Pasha  was  hailed  as  the  political  heir  of  the 


460 


THKOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


ex-medical  student  of  Paris.  Mahmoud  Pasha,  with  his  Rus¬ 
sian  leanings,  was  pushed  away  into  outer  darkness ;  in  Be- 
sika  Bay,  England  had  congregated  the  largest  fleet  of  iron¬ 
clads  that  had  ever  been  brought  together  under  one  flag; 
she  w^as  hailed  as  the  friend,  the  inalienable  ally,  of  Turkey, 
which  the  new  ministers  were  prepared  to  show  was  not  a 

sick  man,”  or,  if  sick,  that,  as  Fuad  himself  said,  “  Turkey 
had  no  organic  malady.” 

Then,  in  those  tumultuous  days  when  the  power  of  Abd-ul- 
-  Aziz  was  passing  away,  were  perpetrated  the  atrocities,  the 
tearful  and  bloody  record  of  which  Europe  has  written  upon 
pages  that  for  all  time  will  stand  as  a  dreadful  memorial  of 
Turkish  misrule.  These  are,  it  is  now  understood,  wild  fruits 
which  grow  by  the  wayside  of  the  Mohammedan  system. 
Never  since  1868,  when  he  became  acquainted  with  the  coun- 
try,  has  the  present  writer  consciously  neglected  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  denouncing  the  Turkish  rule,  of  showing  that  the 
Turkish  Empire  has  organic  disease,  and  that  her  incurable 
malady  grows  ever  more  deadly  as  she  is  forced,  by  new  arte¬ 
rial  connections,  closer  and  more  closely  into  the  light  of  the 
political  ideas  and  civilization  of  Western  Europe.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  reduce  the  pleas  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Turk¬ 
ish  Empire  to  that  one  plea  of  expediency,  upon  which,  in¬ 
deed,  the  greatest  master  of  Turkish  policy,  Fuad  Pasha,  was 
content  to  rest  its  claim  when  he  said, ‘‘We  are  the  best  po¬ 
lice  of  the  Bosphorus,”  nor  to  show  that  the  validity  of  this 
plea  is  a  reproachful  testimony  to  the  greed,  and  jealousy, 
and  want  of  true  civilization  on  the  part  of  the  great  powers 
of  Europe. 

The  Turkish  power  is  a  Mohammedan  theocracy.  No  law 
is  popularly  accepted  as  valid  unless  it  has  religious  sanction. 
The  statute-book  must  run  with  the  Koran.  The  neo-lect  on 
the  part  of  the  Turkish  power  in  regard  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  pledges  inscribed  in  the  hatt-y-houmayoun  of  1856,  of 


“emperor  of  the  ottomans. 


461 


the  due  performance  of  which  the  other  powers  then  felt 
themselves  assured,  does  not  vex  the  mind  of  a  genuine  Turk. 
Those  promises  were  but  wind — we  will  not,  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
said,  call  them  “  air.”  The  obligation  to  fulfill  them  was  not 
to  be  found  within  the  pages  of  the  Koran.  They  were  not, 
they  have  never  been,  indorsed  with  Xhcfeiva  of  the  Sheik-ul- 
Islam.  They  had  not  the  sanction  of  the  Church,  The  fetva 
of  the  Sheik-ul-Islam — which  is  naught  if  it  does  not  imply 
the  consent  of  the  whole  body  of  Mussulman  clergy  was 
needed  before  any  could  engage  in  the  dethronement  of  Abd- 
ul-Aziz.  -It -was  needed  to  put  an  end  to  the  three  months’ 
existence ;  of  Murad  with  the  names  of  sultan  and  of  padi- 
shah. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  work,  in  regard  to  the  Capitula¬ 
tion  of  levs,  we  have  seen  that  the  outward  manifestation  of 
this  theocratic  basis  can  be  suppressed.  Ko  grand  vizier  of¬ 
fering  a  treaty  to  England  would  now  style  his  master  “  Em¬ 
peror  and  Conqueror  of  the  Earth  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Omnipotent  and  the  especial  grace  of  God,  the  Prince  of  Em¬ 
perors  and  the  Dispenser  of  Crowns.”  Even  in  the  Treaty 
of  1856  there  is  no  trace  of  divine  authority  about  the  attri¬ 
butes  of  the  Sultan.  He  is  simply  styled  “Emperor  of  the 
Ottomans.”  This  was  the  work  of  A’ali  and  Fuad,  the  great 
exemplars  of  the  present  time.  It  is  not  a  final  condemnatioit 
of  the  Turkish  power  to  say  that  it  is  theocratic,  for  the  pos¬ 
session  of  that  quality  and  sanction  has  been  the  pretense  of 
all  powers,  and  is  still  the  reputed  basis  of  most  of  the  powers 
of  Europe.  In  his  own  dominions,  the  Tsar  is  just  as  much 
the  “  Shadow  of  God”  as  the  Sultan.  We  must  look  to  the 
ethics  of  the  religion  which  is  the  ground  upon  which  such 
authority  is  claimed.  Mere  forms  of  speech  can  be  changed, 
and  the  language  of  Paris  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Padi¬ 
shah.  When  a  great  utterance  was  composed  for  Abd-ul- 
Aziz,  the  Napoleonic  was  the  most  approved  form  of  cornpo- 


462 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sition.  Had  I  been  blind,  I  could  have  fancied  myself  at  the 
Tuileries  on  the  10th  of  May,  1868,  when,  amidst  hopes  not 
less  extravagant  than  those  w^hich  encircled  the  first  days 
of  poor  Murad’s  elevation,  his  predecessor,  Abd-ul-Aziz  an¬ 
nounced  the  establishment  of  the  Council  of  State  and  the 
High  Court  of  J ustice.  He,  the  successor  of  sultans  whose 
pretensions  to  divine  direction  had  not  been  less  declared  than 
those  of  the  infallible  Pope ;  he  who  was  the  Pope  of  the  Sunni 
Mohammedans  confessed  that  something  was  wrong,  some¬ 
thing  lotten  in  his  State,  because,”  said  the  master  of  greedy 
pashas,  « if  the  principles  and  laws  already  established  had 
answered  to  the  exigencies  of  our  country  and  our  people,  we 
ought  to  have  found  ourselves  to-day  in  the  same  rank  as  the 
most  civilized  and  best-administered  states  of  Europe.”  With 
-this  naive  admission  of  failure,  and  with  a  view  to  promote 
the  lights  of  his  subjects,”  Abd-ul-Aziz,  the  reformer,  whose 
praise  was  then  hymned  in  leading  articles  nowhere  more 
loudly  thaii^  in  England,  announced  the  establishment  of  the 
Council  of  State,  whose  members  are  taken  from  all  classes 
of  our  subjects  without  exception.”  “Another  body,”  he  con¬ 
tinued,  “  instituted  under  the  name  of  the  High  Court  of 
Justice,  has  been  charged  to  assure  justice  to  our  subjects  in 

that  which  concerns  the  security  of  their  persons,  their  honor, 
and  their  property.” 

Ho  Christian  could  speak  more  fairly.  To  those  who 
know  something  of  the  Turkish  system,  all  this  was  “  words,” 
and  nothing  more.  “  Qui  est-ce  qu’on  trompe  ?”*  said  Prince 
Gortschakoff  to  Lord  Augustus  Loftus  concerning  Turkish 
reports.  But  they  did  deceive  England,  for  one  reason _ be¬ 

cause  we  have  always  had  a  large  party,  composed  of  men  of 
both  sides  in  politics,  who  did  not  wish  for  an  exposition  of 

ey ,  who  were  willing  to  be  de- 


*  Correspondence  respecting  the  Affairs  of  Turkey,  No.  58. 


MURAD  AND  HAMID. 


463 


ceived,  and  to  deceive  others.  These  were  the  bond-holders, 
who,  whatever  happened,  feared  to  speak  ill  of  Turkey,  lest, 
in  doing  so,  the  value  of  their  property  should  be  depreciated. 
With  regard  to  the  Turkish  Empire,  the  bond-holders  have 
always  been  optimists,  and  they  have  had  a  very  powerful 
influence  upon  public  opinion.  Men  talked  and  wrote  of 
Abd-ul-Aziz  as  they  talked  and  wrote,  for  a  few  days,  of  Mu¬ 
rad,  and  assumed  then,  as  they  were  ready  to  assume  in  the 
case  of  Murad,  and  as  they  are  now  ready — though  they  are, 
it  must  be  admitted,  less  confident,  in  the  case  of  Abd-ul- 
Ilamid — to  assume  that  a  man  whose  youth  has  been  passed 
under  suppression  and  surveillance,  to  whom  education  has 
been  denied  as  dangerous,  upon  whom  comparative  conti¬ 
nence  and  frugality  have  been  enforced,  would,  when  he  ac¬ 
quired  unlimited  power  and  wealth — when  he  could  indulge 
unchecked  the  favorite  weaknesses  of  the  Prophet — be  a 
lover  of  liberty  and  law,  a  wise  and  liberal  statesman,  the 
husband  of  one  wife,  the  master  of  no  slaves,  and  in  his  pri¬ 
vate  expenditure  the  delight  of  anxious  bond-holders.  It  has 
been  the  inveterate  error  of  the  West  to  suppose  that  in  Tur¬ 
key  figs  grow  from  thistles — that  beautiful  women  are  pro* 
duced  by  a  life  in  rooms  from  which  the  glorious  eye  of  the 
heavens,  as  well  as  the  sight  of  man,  is  excluded  ;  bj  walking 
out-of-doors  in  veils  which  prevent  every  breath  of  fresh  air; 
in  shoes  and  upon  stones  which  render  exercise  a  torture,  and 
graceful  carriage  an  impossibility ;  by  a  life  of  inanity,  ig¬ 
norance,  and  indulgence  in  unwholesome  food.  The  error  is 
not  uncommon,  nor  its  cause  recondite.  We  have  glanced 
at  the  self-delusion  of  the  interested;  but  there  are  others 
who  have  made  this  error.  Their  mistake  is  akin  to  that  of 
the  dramatists  of  the  Restoration,  who.  Lord  Macaulay  says, 
knew  not  that  ‘‘drapery  is  more  alluring  than  exposure.” 
The  mystery  of  the  East  has  been  their  delusion ;  and  this 
mystery,  if  it  is  faced  closely  and  fairly,  especially  if  it  is 


464 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


regarded  during  moments  when,  in  the  political  struggle,  its 
veil  is  disarranged,  is,  as  we  shall  see,  a  cover  for  evils  which 
piefei  daikness  rather  than  light  in  social  life — a  despotism, 
with  slavery  for  a  domestic  institution,  and  upon  the  throne 
of  European  Turkey,  a  misrepresentation  founded  upon  force, 
upheld  by  oppression  of  those  who  are  its  subjects,  and  by 
the  jealousies  of  the  powers  which  are  entitled  its  protectors. 

The  language  of  the  present  Sultan  curiously  resembles 
that  which  I  have  quoted  from  the  proclamation  of  Abd-ul- 
Aziz.  Abd-ul-Hamid  declared  that^  the  critical  condition 
of  the  empire  arises  from  a  bad  application  of  the  laws,  based 
upon  the  precepts  of  the  Cheri  (a  codification  of  the  laws  of 
the  Koran) ;  and  hence  have  resulted  financial  discredit,  de¬ 
fective  working  of  the  tribunals,  and  the  non-development  of 
trade,  manufactuies,  and  agriculture.  To  remedy  these  evils, 
a  special  council  will  be  charged  to  guarantee  the  exact  ex¬ 
ecution  of  existing  laws,  or  those  measures  which  may  be 
promulgated  in  accordance  with  the  Cheri.  The  council 
will  also  superintend  the  budget.  Public  functions  will  be 
intrusted  to  capable  persons,  who  will  be  held  responsible, 
and  will  no  longer  be  dismissed  without  cause.” 

The  same  remedy,  a  council,”  is  proposed,  but  there  is 
a  more  fi-ank  admission  in  the  hatt  of  1876  that  the  Govern¬ 
ment  of  Turkey  is  founded  upon  the  precepts  of  the  Koran. 
The  Turkish  Government  has  ceased  to  represent  itself  to 
foreign  powers  as  theocratic,  but,  regarding  its  subjects,  this 
is  its  truest  title.  When,  in  1856,  the  Sultan  appeared,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  throw  off,  in  deference  to  his  Christian  pro¬ 
tectors  of  the  Latin  and  Anglican  churches,  the  assumption 
of  divine  authority,  it  was  in  fact  asserted,  though  in  lan¬ 
guage  purely  mundane.  He  was  styled  “Emperor  of  the 
Ottomans,  that  is,  of  the  Othmans — of  the  followers  of  the 


*  Daily  News  report  of  imperiiil  hatt,  September,  1876. 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SULTAK.  '  465 

conqueror  whose  sword  Abd-ul-Hamid  has  girded  on  in  the 
Mosque  of  Ey-yub,  the  leader,  in  fact,  of  three  millions  out 
of  twelve  millions  of  people  in  Europe,  supreme  ruler  by  no 
other  right  than  that  of  possession,  having  no  consent  or  true 
allegiance  from  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  of  European 
Turkey ;  being,  in  fact,  successor  of  Mohammed  in  the  Cali¬ 
phate,  and  of  Othman  in  the  Empire.  Two  facts  I  may  men¬ 
tion  which  exhibit  the  true  character  of  the  Sultan’s  rule 
most  clearly ;  the  Mohammedan  is  to  the  Christian  popula¬ 
tion  in  European  Turkey  as  one  to  three;  but  the  non-Mo¬ 
hammedan  people  are  excluded  from  the  army  by  which  the 
Sultan’s  power  is  maintained.  I  have  quoted  the  language 
in  which  the  Council  of  State  was  announced.  In  its  forma¬ 
tion,  the  Council  was  a  scandal,  and  in  existence  it  has  been 
the  means  of  further  enriching  the  oppressors  of  the  country. 
The  non-Mussulman  population  being  as  three  to  one,  A’ali 
Pasha,  the  idol  of  the  Softas,  composed  a  council,  which  in¬ 
deed  exhibited  this  proportion,  but  with  the  figures  reversed 
* — three-fourths  of  its  members  being  Mussulmans. 

When  Murad  was  put  on  the  throne,  the  same  farce  Avas 
played,  but  the  language  Avas  less  grandiloquent.  The  grand 
vizier  addressed  himself,  vid  Murad  (the  hatt  Avas  addressed 
to  “  my  illustrious  vizier  ”),  in  phrases  adapted  from  the  fail¬ 
ure  of  1868.*  ‘‘The  domestic  and  foreign  difficulties  of  the 
Government  have  brought  about,  in  public  opinion,  a  Avant 
of  confidence,  Avhich,  by  disturbing  the  sense  of  security  in 
every  way,  has  entailed  \"ery  material  losses.  It  is  necessary 
to  put  an  end  to  this  state  of  things,  and  to  find  a  remedy  for 
it ;  it  is  necessary  to  adopt  a  line  of  conduct  Avhich  shall  in¬ 
sure  the  Avelfare,  as  Avell  as  the  material  and  moral  prosper¬ 
ity,  of  all  our  subjects.  The  realization  of  these  aspirations 
depends  upon  the  establishment,  upon  a  really  sound  basis. 


*  Imperial  hatt,  dated  June  1st,  187G. 
20* 


466 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


of  the  jii’inciples  of  Government  administration,  and  this  con¬ 
summation  is  the  ever-present  object  of  my  care.” _ ‘^All 

our  subjects,  without  exception,  shall  enjoy  full  and  complete 
libel  ty and  in  order  to  carry  out  this  project, ....  and 
with  a  view  to  this  most  essential  result,  it  is  both  important 
and  necessary  that  the  Council  of  State. . .  .should  be  reorgan¬ 
ized.”  Abd-ul-Hamid  has  said,  or  implied,  at  least  as  much ; 
and  we  are  thus  brought  to  the  position  in  which  statesmen 
such  as  Fuad  and  Midhat  Pashas  find  themselves  when,  after 
entering  into  promises  in  the  French  of  Paris,  they  are  sur¬ 
rounded  with  realities  in  the  Arabic  of  Stamboul.  They  can 
make  hatts,  of  course ;  but  if  these  surpass  the  sanctions  of 
the  Koran,  they  must  rest  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  Sublime 
Porte. 

The  Government  of  Turkey  is  unquestionably  Moham- 
inedau,  and  the  course  of  this  survey  leads  us  now  to  inquire 
what  are  the  inalienable  essentials  of  Mohammedanism  ?  wdiat 
is  its  capacity  for  change,  for  re-interpretation,  in  accordance 
with  modern  ideas?  The  position  of  the  Turkish  Govern¬ 
ment,  thus  representing  only  one-fourth  of  the  people  in  the 
European  empire,  and  claiming  sovereignty  over  other  mill¬ 
ions  in  Servia  and  Roumania,  who  have  successfully  repudi¬ 
ated  any  direct  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Sultan  with 
their  internal  affairs,  is  that  of  a  foreign  garrison,  the  soldiery 
having  no  connection  with  the  mass  of  the  people.  This  Gov¬ 
ernment  and  garrison  cohere  by  force  of  religious  ties.  Both 
are  Mohammedan.  It  was  long  ago  admitted  by  powerful 
friends  of  Turkey  that  is  to  say,  by  the  governments  of 
England,  Fiance,  and  Italy — that  the  only  safe  path  for  the 
empire  in  the  future  lay  in  the  abandonment  of  this  exclusive 
mode  of  government;  and  it  was  A’ali  Pasha  who,  in  the 
famous  hatt-y-houmayoun  of  1856,  promised  the  overthrow 
of  the  Mohammedan  system.  To  make  this  assurance  more 
certain,  he  consented,  on  behalf  of  his  master^  that  the 


con- 


HATT-Y-HOUMAYOUN  OF  1856. 


467 


tvacting  powers  of  1856  should  be  made  parties  to  the  execu¬ 
tion  of  this  hatt,  by  a  special  reference  to  it  in  the  ninth 
article  of  the  treaty.  Of  the  thirty-five  articles  of  this  hatt- 
y-houmayoun,  the  most  interesting  and,  from  my  point  of 
view,  the  most  important  articles  have,  as  Mr.  Butler  John¬ 
stone,  a  friend  to  the  Turkish  power,  writes,  “  remained  dead 
letters.”  I  will  take  his  remarks  upon  this  neglect,  because 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  does  not  overstate  the  case. 
Referring  to  the  promises  of  the  hatt-y-houmayoun,  Mr.  But¬ 
ler  Johnstone  says : 

“  (a)  There  were  to  be  mixed  tribunals  of  justice,  codifica¬ 
tion  of  the  law,  translations  of  the  codes  into  the  different 
languages  of  the  empire,  settled  modes  of  procedure :  this  has 
been  translated,  as  we  have  seen,  into  mock  courts,  unpaid 
jud  ges,  arbitrary  procedure,  and  corrupt  decisions.  (6)  Farm- 
ins:  the  revenue  was  to  be  abolished,  and  a  sounder  fiscal  sys- 
teni  established :  nothing  of  the  kind  has  been  done,  (c)  A 
solemn  undertaking  was  entered  into  to  grapple  with  the  evil 
of  corruption  :  at  present  the  whole  administration  is  corrupt. 
{d)  Banks  were  to  be  established,  to  assist  agriculture  and 
come  to  the  aid  of  commerce :  nothing  of  the  sort  has  been 
thought  of.  (e)  Roads,  canals,  and  railroads  were  to  be 
pushed  forward  with  vigor,  so  as  to  open  up  the  resources  of 
the  country :  the  absence  of  roads  and  canals  has  prevented 
the  relief  of  a  famished  population ;  and  as  to  railroads,  the 
only  important  line  finished  was  a  cloak  for  a  most  notorious 
scandal.  (/)  Foreign  capital  was  to  be  invited  and  encour¬ 
aged  by  every  means,  so  as  to  develop  the  great  resources  of 
the  country :  such  vexatious  obstructions  have  been  placed  in 
the  way  of  foreign  capital  that  it  has  shunned  the  country ; 
and  men  of  integrity,  like  Scott  Russell  and  T.  Brassey,  have 
liad  all  their  offers  rejected.  IJnless  the  pashas  catch  a 
glimpse  of  backshish,  foreign  enterprise  is  an  abomination 
in  their  eyes.^  (g)  Christians  were  to  be  admitted  into  the 


468 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


army  on  the  iDrinciples  of  general  equality:  nothing  of  the 
sort  has  taken  place.” 

These  promises,  made  by  Abd-ul-Medjid,  are  in  all  impor- 
tant  points  identical  with  those  made  by  Abd-ul-Aziz;  they 
were  implied  in  the  hatt  of  Murad,  from  which  I  have  quoted, 
and  they  were  understood  to  be«  adopted  by  Abd-ul-Hamid! 
Midhat  Pasha  is,  no  doubt,  jDrepared,  if  he  gets  opportunity, 
to  follow  Fuad  and  A’ali  in  the  political  dishonesty  of  man¬ 
ufacturing  imperial  edicts,  made  for  show  and  not  for  use, 
which  can  not  have  operation  in  the  Turkish  Emigre,  because 
no  law  is  there  held  valid  which  has  not  the  fetva  of  the 
Sheik-ul-Islam  and  the  general  assent  of  the  clergy.  I  shall 
contend  that  these  promises  are  made  without  regard  to  the 
basis  of  Turkish  law — the  Koran  j  that  they  can  not  be  exe¬ 
cuted  without  a  complete  surrender  of  Mohammedan  princi¬ 
ples,  involving,  ultimately,  an  overthrow  of  the  Mohammedan 
Empire. 

A  Mohammedan  government  could  not  perform  the  prom¬ 
ises  of  the  hatt  of  1856  without  ceasing  to  be  Mohammedan ; 
because  Mohammedanism,  as  a  religious  system,  does  not  ad¬ 
mit  the  followers  of  other  creeds  to  administrative  co-opera¬ 
tion  upon  terms  of  equality.  The  Turkish  Government  prom¬ 
ised  codification  of  law,  and  independent  tribunals  of  Euro¬ 
pean  pattern.  How  is  it  possible  to  put  the  laws  of  the  Ko¬ 
ran  into  a  code  acceptable  to  Christians  ?  The  Turkish  Gov¬ 
ernment  promised  to  admit  the  whole  population  to  the  mili¬ 
tary  service  on  the  principle  of  equality.  But  this  is  equiva¬ 
lent  to  making  the  army  three-fourths  non-Mussulman,  a  sit¬ 
uation  in  which  Mohammedan  supremacy  in  the  Government 
could  not  endure  for  twenty -four  hours.  By  n  monstrous 
euphemism,  the  exclusion  of  the  non-Mussulman  population 
fiom  the  army  is  charged  to  them  as  “exemption,”  and  they 
are^  made  to  pay  about  five  shillings  per  man  to  establish 
theii  own  degradation.  The  Christian  peasants  may,  in  some 


SIR  HENRY  ELLIOT  AND  THE  PORTE. 


469 


parts,  be  too  ignorant  to  compreliend  that  in  this  exclusion 
their  oppression  is  established.  Yet  the  true  character  of  the 
tax  is  very  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  has  been  imposed, 
not  only  upon  able-bodied  men,  but  in  respect  of  male  infants 
from  their  birth,  and  old  men  long  past  military  service.* 
This  was  one  of  the  grievances  of  the  Bulgarians,  and  by  a 
firman  of  last  December  the  Porte  was  pledged  not  to  levy 
the  tax  upon  infants  and  old  men.  But  this  promise,  like  all 
the  promises  of  the  Turkish  Government,  was  worthless ;  and 
Sir  Henry  Elliot  reported  to  Lord  Derby  that  “  unless  the 
Turkish  Government  were  to  abandon  a  large  proportion  of 
the  revenue  derived  from  the  tax,  it  became  necessary  great¬ 
ly  to  raise  the  amount  to  be  paid  by  each  individual  of  an 
age  to  serve.”f  The  Government,  therefore,  with  no  remon¬ 
strance  from  Sir  Henry  Elliot,  declined  to  give  the  tax  the 
appearance  even  of  an  exemption  charge;  and  the  British 
embassador  has  reported  that  this  demand,  even  of  an  install¬ 
ment  of  justice,  has  led  to  a  discussion  of  the  liability  of 
Christians  to  military  service;  for  which  he  has  said,  “Some 
of  them,  and  especially  the  Bulgarians,  are  showing  them¬ 
selves  disposed  to  ask.  They  are  aware  that  the  conscrip¬ 
tion  would,  in  many  respects,  press  more  heavily  upon  them 
than  the  exemption  tax;  but  they  know,  likewise,  that  no 
firmans  or  regulations  Avill  do  so  much  to  bring  about  a  real 
equality  between  Mussulman  and  Christian.”];  That  which, 
of  course,  these  poor  people  have  not  hitherto  realized  is  that 
a  conscription,  fairly  conducted  among  the  population  of  Tur¬ 
key  in  Europe,  could  only  end  in  the  substitution  of  Chris¬ 
tian  for  Mohammedan  supremacy  in  the  empire. 

Abd-ul-Aziz  was  Sultan  when  dispatch  ISTo.  33  was  writ¬ 
ten;  he  Avas  in  his  grave  Avhen  Sir  Henry  Elliot  returned  to 
the  subject  on  the  8th  of  June.  His  excellency  has  always 


*  Correspondence,  No.  33. 


t  Ibid. 


t  Ibid. 


470 


THEOUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


shown  himself  more  solicitous  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  than  for  the  just  administration  of  the  Sul¬ 
tan’s  power ;  and,  accordingly,  though  regarding  the  exclu¬ 
sion  of  the  non-Mussulman  people  from  the  army  as  “  the  one 
great  badge  of  distinction  existing  between  the  two  races,” 
admitting  that  “  the  Christians  have  become  aware  that  until 
it  is  swept  away  their  nominal  equality  with  the  Mussulmans 
can  not  be  complete  and  real,”  he  urges  that  ‘‘it  is  not  nec¬ 
essary  that  the  conscription  should  at  once  be  put  in  force 
among  the  Christian  population;  but  the  military  schools 
should  at  once  be  opened  to  them,  and  they  might  be  re¬ 
ceived  either  as  volunteers  or  as  substitutes  for  Mussulmans 
drawn  as  conscripts.”  Of  course  the  Christians  would  resist 
a  conscription  which  sought  to  make  them  tools  of  the  mis¬ 
governing  rule  to  which  they  are  subject,  and  from  which 
they  have  at  all  times  suffered  grievous  wrongs.  They  are 
unequal,  and  unable  to  appreciate  the  ultimate  results  of  such 
a  measure  in  the  subversion  of  the  Mohammedan  power. 


PERSIAN  MOHAMMEDANISM. 


471 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Islam  in  Persia. — Mohammedans  of  India. — Ali  of  the  Shi’ahs.  Abii-Bekr 
Successor  of  Mohammed. — Imams  of  the  Shi’ahs.  Reza  and  Mehdee. 
Religion  in  the  East. — Mohammed  as  a  Soldier.  War  with  Infidels. 
Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages.— Stretching  the  Koran.— Mohammed's 
Marriage  Law.— Status  of  Mohammedan  Women.- Women  and  Civiliza¬ 
tion.— Special  Privilege  of  Mohammed.— Mormonism  and  Mohammedan¬ 
ism. — Consequences  of  Polygamy. — Protection  of  Polygamy.  Moham¬ 
med  and  Ayesha. — Scandal  silenced  by  the  Koran.  Mohammed  s  Do¬ 
mestic  Difficulty.— Law  for  Men  and  Women.— Women  in  Mohammed’s 
Heaven.  —  The  Mohammedan  Paradise.  —  Mohammed  and  the  Jews.  ^ 
Birth  of  Christ  in  the  Koran. — Miracles  of  Christ.  English  Leaning  to 
Islam. — Mohammedanism  and  Christianity. — Christians  of  the  East.  Mos¬ 
lem  Intemperance. — Wine  and  the  Koran.  Superiority  of  Chiistianit} . 

IjET  us  how  gliincG  tit  the  peculiaritiGS  of  PGrsia.ii  Mohaui- 
iiiGdaiiism,  which  should  havG  special  interest  for  Englishmen, 
inasmuch  as  the  dissent  of  the  Persians  shows  the  diffeience 
which  exists  in  that  large  body  of  our  Indian  fellow-subjects, 
amounting  to  about  40,000,000,  whose  Mohammedanism  is  so 
often  referred  to  as  a  matter  which  should  rule  out  policy  in 
Turkey,  and  as  a  danger  to  our  empire  in  India. 

Islam  in  India  is  divided  into  Shi’ahs  and  Sunnis  a  dis¬ 
tinction  which  separates  the  Mohammedans  of  Peisia,  who 
are  Shi’ahs,  from  the  Mohammedans  of  Turkey,  who  aie  Sun¬ 
nis.  In  the  Christian  world,  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  ex¬ 
hibit  a  similar  point  of  union,  and  a  somewhat  similai  diffei¬ 
ence.  Both  are  united  in  Christ ;  yet  in  the  world,  and  in  the 
practice  of  the  religion  which  they  allege  to  be  that  of  Christ, 
the  Greek  and  the  Roman  churches  live  as  theological  enemies. 
As  a  rule,  theological  rancor  increases  between  religious  bod- 


472 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJiT. 

ies  ill  proiDortioii  as  their  tenets  approximate;  and,  accord- 
Constantinople  we  find  that  tlie  bitterest  sectarian 
enmities  exist  between  the  Armenian  Catholics  and  the 
Armenian  Orthodox,  their  difference  seeming  to  outside  ob¬ 
servers  to  be  merely  that  “’twixt  tweedledum  and  tweedle- 
dee.”  In  the  Mohammedan  Church,  some  animosity 'divides 
Shi’ahs  and  Sunnis,  separating  Persian  and  Turk — the  Shi’ah 
of  N^orthern,  from  the  Sunni  of  Central  and  Southern,  India. 
There  are  villages  in  Eastern  Persia,  and  in  Afghanistan,  in¬ 
habited  by  a  mixed  population  of  Shi’ahs  and  Sunnis,  and  in 
some  of  these,  in  order  to  prevent  disturbance,  the  Shi’ahs 
are  confined  to  one  side  of  a  road,  while  the  other  side  is 
exclusively  devoted  to  Sunnis. 

When  Mohammed  fought  the  “  battles  of  God,”  Ali,  his 
brave  son-in-law,  husband  of  the  Prophet’s  only  surviving 
daughter,  Fatima,  was  ever  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  He 
was  the  Ajax  of  the  heroes  of  Medina  in  the  warfare  against 
Mecca.  If  there  was  single  combat  to  be  done,  Ali  was  the 
man  who  stepped  forward  to  slay  the  champion  of  idolatrous 
Arabia;  it  was  the  flashing  vengeance  of  Ali’s  ci meter  which 
brought  back  the  tide  of  battle  when  it  had  ebbed  away  from 
the  standard  of  the  Prophet.  But  Ali  was  not  the  immediate 
successor  of  Mohammed  in  governing  the  Church  Militant  of 
Medina.  Among  the  earliest  of  the  followers  of  the  Prophet, 
among  the  companions  of  his’ flight  —  that  “Hegira”  from 
which  all  Mohammedan  people  date  their  time,  as  all  Europe 
(outside  Turkey)  does  from  the  birth  of  Christ  —  was  one 
Abu- Bekr,  upon  whom  it  is  said  Mohammed  called,  in  the 
agonies  of  death,  to  take  his  place  in  the  Mosque  of  Medina. 

In  a  corner  of  the  court- yard  of  this  mosque  stood  the 
Prophet’s  home,  including  the  apartments  of  his  nine  wives. 
It  was  in  the  room  of  his  favorite  wife,  the  beautiful  and 
vivacious  Ayesha,  that  he  lay  dying,  when,  according  to  Sun¬ 
ni  belief,  he  summoned  Abu-Bekr  to  the  pulpit,  and  was  held 


ABU-BEKR  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS.  473 

by  this  act  to  have  indicated  a  preference  as  to  his  successor 
in  the  position  of  ruler,  or  caliph.  After  the  Prophet’s  death, 
Abn-Bekr  was  acclaimed  to  this  position — the  spiritual  and 
temporal  headship  of  Islam.  From  that  time  to  these  days 
of  the  unhappy  Abd-nl-Aziz,  and  Murad,  and  Hamid,  the 
person  acclaimed  Caliph  upon  the  death  or  deposition  of  his 
predecessor  has  been  accepted  by  the  Sunni  Mohammedans  as 
their  chief.  For  ages  this  great  title  has  remained  with  the 
descendants  of  Othman  j  and  from  him  the  Turks  have  ac¬ 
quired  the  name  of  Ottomans,  or  Osmanli.  But  this  restric¬ 
tion  to  the  line  of  Othman  is  an  accident  —  a  convenience; 
the  line  has  become  sacred  by  unbroken  descent  of  the  Cal¬ 
iphates  ;  but  that  is  all.  Turks  have  become  accustomed  to 
hereditary  descent  of.  the  superior  power;  but  this  form  of 
succession  is  no  fundamental  principle  of  their  system ;  and 
thou<^h  their  ruler  is  head  of  the  Church  and  State,  he  is,  as 
we  have  seen,  liable  to  deposition  by  the  authority  of  the 
Church.  It  was  the  fetva  of  the  Sheik-ul-Islam  which  con¬ 
firmed  Houssein  Avni  and  Midhat  Pashas  in  their  resolve  to 
dethrone  Abd-ul-Aziz.  With  the  Sunni  Mohammedans,  the 
Sultan  represents  the  power  of  the  Prophet. 

With  the  Shi’ahs  it  is  otherwise.  To  the  Shi’ahs  of  Per¬ 
sia  the  Shah  is  nothing  but  a  supreme  magistrate,  whose 
office  it  is  to  govern  in  accordance  with,  and  by  the  light  of, 
the  words  of  the  Koran.  With  them.  Imams,  that  is,  the  full 
inheritors  of  the  office  of  Mohammed,  are  too  sublime  to  walk 
the  earth  in  these  degenerate  days.  Abu-Bekr  was  no  Caliph 
of  theirs;  they  repudiate  him,  and  with  him  tlio  title  by 
which  nearly  all  of  his  successors  have  reigned.  To  Ali,  and 
to  the  descendants  of  Ali,  especially  to  his  son,  the  son  of 
Fatima — to  Houssein,  murdered  at  Kerbela — is  their  homage 
o-iven.  They  acknowledge  but  twelve  Imams;  and  it  is  long 
since  they  have  seen  the  last  of  these  holy  impersonations. 
The  first  three  Imams  of  the  Shi’ahs  were  Ali  and  his  two 


474 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


sons,  Hassan  and  Houssein.  The  eighth  was  the  very  holy 
Reza,  whose  shrine  at  Meshed  is  always  crowded ;  the  twelfth 
and  last,  known  by  the  name  of  Mehdee,  was  born  a.d.  868, 
and,  according  to  Shi’ah  belief,  was  taken  from  the  sight  of 
men  when  he  was  only  nine  years  old.  Mehdee  is  the  invisi¬ 
ble  Imam  of  the  Shi’ahs  j  he  is  to  return  to  earth  some  day, 
beaiing  with  him  the  complete  and  perfect  Koran,  which,  in 
the  Shi’ah  doctrine,  was  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  All  For 
the  Shi  ahs,  the  humanity  of  religion,  the  link  between  God 
and  man  is  found  in  Ali,  and,  to  a  greater  extent,  in  Hous¬ 
sein  ;  probably  because  the  latter  died  a  violent  death. 

Returning  now  to  the  general  subject,  I  would  say  that 
observation  of  Mussulman  authority  in  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa  has  convinced  me  of  the  truth  of  the  following  opin- 
ion,  penned  by  a  distinguished  upholder  of  Mohammedan  rule 
in  Tuikey :  ‘‘Religion  in  the  East,”  he  most  truly  says,  “has' 
not  the  restricted  meaning  which  it  has  with  us.  Every 
thing  with  them  [^the  Mohammedan  peoplej  is  religious.  All 
ihose  questions  which  with  us  would  be  termed  matters  of 
politics  are  with  the  Mohammedans  matters  of  religion. 
Mohammedanism  is,  in  fact,  a  religion,  a  code,  and  a  "^civil 
polity,  or,  rather,  these  three  things  are  different  aspects  of 
the  same  idea.”  Therefore,  in  order  to  master  the  internal 
springs  of  the  Turkish  system,  we  must  go  to  the  Koran. 

Englishmen  have  been  taken  to  the  Koran  by  blind  guides. 
Attempts  like  that  of  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith,  in  his  “  Mohammed 
and  Mohammedanism,”  have  been  made  to  varnish  the  Koran 
with  modern  and  unnatural  coloring.  Ill-judged  and  inaccu¬ 
rate  as  I  shall  show  these  to  have  been,  such  attempts  are  not, 
j)erhaps,  surprising.  It  is  the  widely  spreading  revolt  against 
certain  dogmas  attributed  to  Christianity  which  has  led  to 
this  shallow  delight  in  the  Koran,  of  which  the  central  doc¬ 
trine  is  that  of  the  unity  of  God.  The  Mohammedan  service 
of  the  Grand  Mosque,  still  known  to  Europe  by  its  Christian 


MOHAMMED  AS  A  SOLDIER. 


475 


name,  Santa  Sophia,  is,  in  its  outward  aspect,  lofty  and  sub¬ 
lime  ;  it  is  ennobled  by  a  comparison  with  the  mean  mum¬ 
meries  of  the  altars  of  Seville,  or  with  the  farthing  tapers  and 
picture-kissings  of  Moscow.  But  that  outward  form  of  wor¬ 
ship  is  not  Mohammedanism  ;  and  these  things — the  wooden 
dolls  of  Spain,  “Our  Ladies”  of  Montserrat  and  Atocha,'and 
of  this  place  and  that  (dolls  endowed  with  revenues,  and  with 
sacristans  for  keepers  of  their  wardrobes) ;  the  adored  pict¬ 
ures  of  Moscow,  devoid  of  beauty  and  of  the  charm  of  high 
and  authentic  antiquity — nor  are  these  things  Christianity. 

We  shall,  however,  be  able  better  to  appreciate  the  error  of 
these  apologists  of  Mohammedanism  when  we  have  glanced 
at  the  leading  doctrines  of  Mohammed.  The  Prophet  of  Is¬ 
lam  w^as  a  soldier,  the  E’apoleon  of  his  age.  If  the  great  Cor¬ 
sican  had  lived  twelve  hundred  years  before  his  time,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  “Les  Idees  h^apoleonniennes  ”  would  have 
taken  the  form  of  the  Suras  of  the  Koran.  The  sword  of 
Mohammed  was  never  long  in  its  scabbard.  He  dictated  a 
chapter  of  the  Koran  while  his  cheek  streamed  with  blood 
from  a  wound  sustained  in  the  battle  of  Ohud.  The  Koran 
encourages  Islam  to  war  with  the  infidel  in  these  words 
“  Fio-ht  on,  therefore,  till  there  be  no  temptation  to  idola- 
try,  and  the  religion  be  God’s.” 

“Fight  for  the  religion  of  God  against  those  who  fight 
against  you.  Kill  them  wherever  ye  find  them;  and  turn 
them  out  of  that  whereof  they  have  dispossessed  you  ;  for 
temptation  to  idolatry  is  more  grievous  than  slaughter.” 

W^ar  is  enjoined  you  against  the  infidel ;  but  this  is  hate¬ 
ful  unto  you.  Yet  perchance  ye  hate  a  thing  which  is  better 
for  you ;  and  perchance  ye  love  a  thing  which  is  worse  for 
you  ;  but  God  knoweth,  and  ye  know  not.” 

“  When  ye  encounter  the  unbelievers,  strike  off  their  heads. 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 

/ 


476 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


until  ye  have  made  a  great  slaughter  among  them .  And, 

as  to  those  who  fight  in  defense  of  God’s  true  religion,  God 
will  not  suffer  their  works  to  perish;  he  will  guide  them, 
and  dispose  their  heart  aright;  and  he  will  lead  them  into 
Paiadise,  of  which  he  hath  told  them.  Oh  !  true  believers, 
if  ye  assist  God  by  fighting  for  his  religion,  he  will  assist  you 
against  your  enemies,  and  will  set  your  feet  fast;  but,  as  for 

the  infidels,  let  them  perish .  This  shall  come  to  pass; 

for  that  God  is  the  patron  of  the  true  believers ;  and  for  that 
the  infidels  have  no  protector.” 

Of  course  there  is  not  in  ordinary  times  an  active  desire 
to  indulge  in  a  crusade  against  overwhelming  odds ;  the  su¬ 
preme  teaching  of  utility  is  too  strong  for  that.  But  every 
Moslem  knows  that  the  defeat  of  heresy  by  the  sword  is  a 
cardinal  point  of  Mohammed’s  teaching,  and  that  Moham¬ 
med  s  Paradise  is  promised  to  those  who  fall  in  such  conflict. 
It  is  no  refutation  of  this  to  allege A-hat  the  Christianity  of 
the  Middle  Ages  was  no  better ;  and  to  quote  the  Papal  leg¬ 
ate  who  put  the  edge  of  the  Koman  Catholic  sword  to  all 
throats  with  the  words  ''Kill  all;  God  will  know  his  own.” 
Yet  the  error  which  is  latent  in  this  line  of  argument  has  to 
be  exposed.  It  seems  to  some  Englishmen  to  be  a  discovery, 
at  once  interesting  and  startling,  that  all  systems  of  religion— 
those  established  before  Christ  as  well  as  that  of  M^oham- 
med— are  inseparably  related.  They  find  not  only  ideas,  but 
dogmas  transmitted  ;  they  learn  to  infer  that  Christianity  is 
not  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  religion.  Standing  in  regard 
to  the  orthodox  interpretation  of  their  own  sacred  books 
somewhat  in  the  attitude  of  "  the  poor  cat  i’  the  adage,  let¬ 
ting  I  dale  not  wait  upon  I  would,”  they  are  overjoyed  with 
the  delicious  soup^on  of  irrefragable  heterodoxy  thus  impart¬ 
ed,  and  in  their  rapture  fail  to  grasp  the  utilitarian  chain 
which  would  lead  them,  link  by  link,  to  an  invaluable  test  in 
this  comparison. 


477 


“stretching”  the  koean. 

Tliey  are  not  too  careful  how  they  deal  with  tlieir  own  Bi¬ 
ble  when  “  the  insuperable  dogmatic  character  ”  of  the  Ko¬ 
ran  is  in  question.  The  member  for  Canterbury,  who,  I  pre¬ 
sume,  is  with  Lord  Beaconsfield  upon  the  side  of  the  angels  in 
the  matter  of  evolution,  has  argued  that  “  the  inspired  char¬ 
acter  of  the  Christian  sacred  books  has  not  prevented  prog¬ 
ress  in  religion  in  Europe,  and  for  this  reason,  viz.,  that  the 
inspired  writings  are  sufficiently  elastic  in  expression  to  ad¬ 
mit  of  progressive  developments  and  interpretations ;  other¬ 
wise  religious  thought,  and  with  it  civilization,  would  have 
been  strangled  in  the  Christian  world.  And  so  it  is  with  the 
Koran.” 

These  desperate  friends  of  Mohammedan  power  are  blind 
to  facts  as  well  as  tendencies.  Stretch  the  doctrines  of  the 
Koran  to  the  length  they  desire,  and  the  religion  of  Moham¬ 
med  is  gone ;  strain  them  politically,  so  as  to  establish  a  true 
equality  of  Mohammedan  and  non-Mohammedan  population^ 
and  the  empire  of  Othman  must  pass  away.  Of  course,  doc¬ 
trines  of  the  Koran  may  be  amended  by  a  revised  interpreta¬ 
tion — that  is,  some  of  them.  Women  need  not  be  condemned 
to  suffer  ill  health  from  want  of  fresh  air  because  the  Koran 
tells  them  “  to  discover  not  their  ornaments,”  to  conceal  their 
charms  from  all  but  certain  persons.  Upon  this  matter,  di¬ 
rectly  affecting  the  whole  population,  there  are  several  inter¬ 
pretations  now  in  sight  among  Mohammedans.  The  Per¬ 
sians  include  the  eyes,  the  Turks  do  not ;  and  the  opinion  of 
high  society  in  Constantinople  has  ceased,  in  fact,  to  include 
any  part  of  the  face,  the  only  difference  from  European  cus¬ 
tom  being  that,  whereas  the  veils  of  English  ladies  fall  from 
the  head-dress,  and  are  not  always  worn,  those  of  the  belles 
of  Stamboul,  not  less  diaphanous,  but  indispensable,  mount 
from  the  chin  to  the  nose. 

The  Koran  says,  “  Take  in  marriage  such  women  as  please 
you _ two,  three,  or  four,  and  not  more;”  but  the  faithful 


478 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAM. 


may  enter  into  temporary  connubial  arrangements  with  any 
iiiimbei  of  those  women  whom  they  have  ac(juire(i  as 
slaves.  It  will  be  said  that  there  is  nothing  in  these  words 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  monogamy,  which  is  already  the  es¬ 
tablished  rule  of  life  with  many  Turks.  N^othing  whatever; 
indeed,  we  find  these  words  in  the  Koran  :  If  ye  fear  ye 
can  not  act  equitably  toward  so  many,  marry  one  only,  or  the 
slaves  which  ye  shall  have  acquired.”  Moreover,  it  is  obvi¬ 
ous  that  time  tends  to  encourage  the  decline  of  polygamy. 
The  men  of  Constantinople  who  have  but  one  wife  have  not 
lost  confidence  in  the  teaching  of  the  Koran.  They  are  com¬ 
ing  to  Euiopean  ways,  because,  by  increasing  the  indiv’^iduali- 
ty  of  women,  civilization  has  surrounded  polygamy  with  eni- 
bai  1  assments.  Some  of  them  say  they  prefer  to  have  but 
one  wife  because  of  the  better  enjoyment  of  her  society,  and 
the  avoidance  of  jealousies  and  difficulty  in  regard  to  chil¬ 
dren.  Others  admit  that  expense  sways  their  mind.  The  la- 
dies  of  Stamboul  have  acquired  by  association  tastes  which 
are  very  costly :  a  liking  for  jeweled  w^atches,  for  Paris  fash¬ 
ions  in  dress,  in  carriages,  in  furniture.  Each  one  of  Moham¬ 
med’s  nine  wdves  had  but  a  mud-built  shed,  all  grouped  in 
one  corner  of  the  ground  surrounding  the  mosque  at  Medina. 
Ayesha  alone  wmuld  have  ruined  him  if,  wdth  his  means,  the 
Prophet  had  humored  her  extravagances  in  modern  Stamboul. 

M^herever  Mohammedanism  touches  a  higher  civ’^ilization, 
the  w'oman  at  once  gains  individuality,  the  veil  becomes  more 
transpaient,  and  polygamy  is  less  common.  "W^hy  ?  Because 
the  progress  of  civilization  is  synonymous  wdth  the  advance 
of  individuality,  and  individuality  is  both  troublesome  and 
costly  in  the  persons  of  dependents.  “  There  is  nothing  in 
the  religion  of  Islam,”  said  a  writer  of  the  highest  authority 
in  a  recent  article  upon  ‘^The  Situation  Viewed  from  Con¬ 
stantinople,”  “  which  can  fairly  be  called  adverse  to  civiliza¬ 
tion.  I  shall  abundantly  expose  the  falsity  of  this  proposi- 


SPECIAL  PEIVILEGE  OP  MOHAMMED. 


479 


tion ;  but  if  the  writer  had  said,  “  There  is  nothing  in  tlie 
religion  of  Islam  which  can  withstand  civilization,”  I  should 
have  agreed  with  him.  The  thinly  veiled  beauty  of  Constan¬ 
tinople  has  requirements  unthought  of  by  the  secluded  Per¬ 
sian  lady,  and  thus  the  Turk  is  guided  to  the  equitable  law 
of  monogamy.  I  will  even  admit  that,  in  adopting  this  rule, 
the  Moslem  does  not  repudiate  the  sanctions  of  the  Koran, 
and  that,  after  a  life  spent  in  fidelity  to  one  wife,  he  does  not 
regard  with  scorn  or  contempt  the  “  specially  revealed  ”  priv¬ 
ileges  of  Mohammed  in  regard  to  polygamy.  Yet  it  is  hard 
to  feel  aught  but  disgust  for  Christian  writers  who  degrade 
themselves  by  penning  apologies  for  the  rampant  lust  of  Mo¬ 
hammed.  He  slaughtered  a  Jewish  tribe,  and  selected  a  wife 
from  those  he  had  made  widows.  He  coveted  Zeinab,  the 
wife  of  Zeid,  his  adopted  son,  and  could  not  rest  until  he 
had  compelled  a  divorce  between  Zeinab  and  Zeid,  so  that 
he  might  ,  take  Zeinab  for  himself.  It  was  this  last  outrage 
which  led  Mohammed  to  perpetrate  in  the  Koran  his  great¬ 
est  offense.  The  lowest  depths  of  historical  imposture  seem 
to  contain  nothing  so  foul  as  the  deliberate  admixture  of  spe¬ 
cial  license  for  himself,  in  regard  to  polygamy,  with  sacred 
principles  of  justice  in  the  Koran.  Surely  I  have  made  a 
larger  concession  than  truth  will  admit,  in  saying  that  the 
practice  of  monogamy,  which  the  apologists  of  the  Turk 
rightly  declare  to  be  extending  in  Turkey,  is  consistent  with 
reverence  for  the  man  who,  because  he  wished  to  take  for 
himself  the  Avife  of  another,  and  could  not  gain  possession  of 
her  as  a  slave,  put  these  words  into  the  mouth  of  the  Moham¬ 
medan  God : 

‘‘  O  Prophet,  we  have  allowed  thee  thy  wives,  unto  whom 
thou  hast  given  their  dower,  and  also  the  slaves  which  thy 
right  hand  possesseth  of  the  booty  which  God  hath  granted 
thee,  and  the  daughters  of  thy  uncles,  and  the  daughters  of 
thy  aunts,  both  on  thy  father’s  side  and  on  thy  mother’s  side. 


480 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAJST. 


who  have  fled  with  thee  from  Mecca,  and  any  other  believ¬ 
ing  woman,  if  she  give  herself  unto  the  Prophet,  in  case  the 
Prophet  desireth  to  take  her  to  wife.  This  is  a  peculiar 
piivilege  gi  anted  unto  thee  above  the  rest  of  true  believ- 

.  Thou  mayest  postpone  the  turn  of  such  of  thy 

"wives  as  thou  shalt  please.  God  knoweth  whatever  is  in 
your  hearts,  and  God  is  knowing  and  gracious.”* 

Joe  Smith  and  Prigham  Young  have  not  been  without  suc¬ 
cess  in  their  humbler  way,  and  in  more  rational  times ;  but  it 
may  fairly  be  doubted  if  they  would  have  had  as  large  a  fol¬ 
lowing  had  their  sacred  books  contained  special  privileges  of 
this  sort  for  the  leaders  of  Mormonism. 

Tolygamy,  v  hich  implies  the  unnatural  appropriation  of 
Avomen  by  the  rich  of  the  male  sex,  is  responsible  for  much 
of  the  vice  of  Eastern  nations.  The  worst  side,  the  lustful  in¬ 
spiration  of  the  Koran,  is  now^here  more  strikingly  exhibited 
than  in  the  law^s  relating  to  adultery  and  fornication.  Against 
the  traffic  in  the  latter  vice  the  Koran  is  most  severe ;  and  in 
throwing  down  the  house  Avhich  I  observed  in  ruins  in  Ka- 
shan,  the  governor  had  only  fulfilled  the  duties  of  a  true  Mus¬ 
sulman.  The  Koran  says,  “If  any  of  your  Avomen  are  guilty, 
produce  four  Avitnesses  from  among  you  against  them ;  and 
if  they  bear  Avitness  against  them,  imprison  them  in  separate 
apaitments  till  death  release  them,  or  God  affordeth  them  a 
Avay  to  escape.”  In  the  days  of  Mohammed,  Avomen  Avere 
impiisoned  under  this  law  till  they  died,  and  their  death  AAms 
often  brought  about.by  starvation,  or  some  other  cruel  means.  ’ 
Later,  this  practice  was  mitigated  by  the  Sonna ;  and  while 
theii  male  paitneis  in  crime  Avere  of  course  free,  unmarried 
Avomen  guilty  of  unchastity  Avere  scourged  Avith  a  hundred 
stripes,  and  married  Avomen  were  stoned.  Women  slaves, 
being  held  less  accountable  for  their  Alices,  received  half  the 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 


PROTECTION  OF  POLYGAMY. 


481 


jienalty  to  which,  free  women  Avere  subject;  and  as  stoning 
could  not  be  done  by  halves,  flogging  Avas  their  punishment. 

The  polygamous  households  of  Mohammed  and  his  folloAA"- 
ers  Avere  protected  by  these  laAvs;  but  for  the  crime  of  men 
against  Avomen  the  Koran  has  no  punishment.  “  Compel  not,” 
says  the  Prophet,  in  the  24th  Sura,  ‘^your  maid- servants  to 
prostitute  themselves,  if  they  be  Avilling  to  live  chastely,  that 
ye  may  seek  the  casual  advantage  of  this  present  life;  but 
Avhoever  will  compel  them  thereto,  verily  God  will  be  gracious 
and  merciful  unto  such  AVomen  after  their  compulsion.”  This 
particular  passage  in  a  book  held  sacred  by  millions  of  man¬ 
kind  Avas  the  “revealed”  reply  of  Mohammed  to  the  com¬ 
plaint  of  a  Avoman,  a  slave  in  the  household  of  Abd’allah  Ebn 
Obba,  who  had  six  female  slaves,  on  each  of  Avhoni  he  laid  a 
tax,  and  obliged  them  to  pay  it  by  the  proceeds  of  an  un¬ 
chaste  life.  This  suggestive  rule  of  the  Koran  is  still  in  oper¬ 
ation,  and  we  have  had  an  opportunity  of  learning,  upon  ofii- 
cial  authority,  how  it  works  in  Turkey.  “A  custom  prevails 
here,”  Mr.  Consul  Abbott  reported,  “  to  exempt  from  milita¬ 
ry  conscription  a  Mussulman  young  man  who  elopes  Avith  a 
Christian  girl,  and  Avhom  he  converts  to  his  faith.  This  being 
a  meritorious  act  for  his  religion,  it  entitles  him,  as  a  reAvard, 
to  be  freed  from  military  service.”*  Mr.  Abbott’s  expression 
“  elopes  Avith  ”  is  an  obvious  euphemism  for  “  abducts.” 

A  difiicultv  Avhich  occurred  in  the  household  of  Mohammed, 
and  AA’hich  nearly  caused  the  cruel  death  of  Ayesha,  the  most 
beautiful  and  engaging  of  his  w’ives,  led  to  the  issue  of  a  Sura 
specially  “  sent  doAvn  from  heaven,”  Avhich  did  inflict  some 
punishment  upon  men  in  their  relations  Avith  Avomen,  the  in¬ 
spiration  being  obviously  the  jealousy  of  Mohammed.  In  the 
sixth  year  of  the  Hegira,  Avhen  Mohammed  Avas  beginning  his 
career  of  conquest,  he  undertook  a  military  expedition  against 


*  “  Consular  Eeports  on  the  Condition  of  Christians  in  Turkey.” 

21 


482 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


the  tribe  of  Mostalek,  and  on  the  march  he  was  accompanied 
by  his  young  wife  Ayesha,  who  rode  upon  a  camel,  screened 
from  all  eyes  in  a  curtained  structure  fastened  upon  the  back 
of  the  animal.  One  night,  when  the  forces  of  the  Prophet 
’were  returning  to  Medina,  Ayesha  ordered  the  driver  to  stop 
her  camel.  The  animal  was  stopped,  and  made  to  kneel.  In 
the  darkness  Ayesha  retired  a  little  way  into  the  desert.  In 
returning,  according  to  her  own  account,  she  discovered  that 
she  had  lost  a  necklace  of  onyxes,  a  gift  from  her  husband, 
the  Prophet.  She  therefore  retraced  her  steps,  looking  care¬ 
fully  for  the  lost  treasure.  If  a  well-trained  camel  is  placed 
upon  its  knees,  it  is  not  difficult  to  stejD  from  the  harness  into 
a  carriage,  or  howdah,  upon  the  animaks  back.  The  driver 
supposed,  after  some  minutes  had  elapsed,  that  Ayesha  was 
again  in  her  place,  and,  taking  this  for  certain,  led  the  camel 
onward. 

When  Ayesha  regained  the  track,  she  found  the  camel 
gone,  and  sat  herself  down  by  the  way-side,  thinking,  so  she 
said,  that  search  would  soon  be  made  for  her.  She  fell  asleep, 
and  in  the  early  dawn  of  morning  was  awaked  by  one  Safwan, 
who  trembled  as  he  recognized  the  favorite  wife  of  the  Proph¬ 
et.  Pie  awoke  her,  Ayesha  said,  by  softly  murmuring  twice 
in  her  uncovered  ear  the  words,  “  We  are  God’s,  and  unto 
him  we  must  return.”  Ayesha’s  first  instinct  was  to  shroud 
herself  from  this  man  with  her  veil.  She  then  allowed  Saf¬ 
wan  to  set  her  upon  his  camel,  and  to  lead  her  toward  the 
army,  in  the  rear  of  which  Safwan  had  been  one  of  the  most 
distant  stragglers.  They  overtook  the  forces  of  Mohammed 
when  the  soldiers  were  resting  about  the  hour  of  noon.  Im¬ 
mediately  there  was  a  great  cry  of  scandal  in  the  household 
of  the  Prophet,  and  Abd’allah  Ebn  Obba  spread  through 
the  camp  a  charge  of  planned  adultery  with  Safwan  against 
Ayesha. 

Mohammed  was  a  terribly  jealous  husband;  moreover,  he 


Mohammed’s  domestic  difficulty’  483 

was  thirty  years  older  than  this  vivacious  girl.  His  jealousy 
increased  as  he  advanced  in  years ;  and,  on  one  occasion, 
when  the  hand  of  a  companion  was  thought  to  have  touched 
that  of  Ayesha,  the  Prophet  felt  so  much  uneasiness  that  he 
was  not  comforted  until  he  had  settled  the  present  and  future 
of  his  wives  by  a  revelation  from  heaven.  And,  accordingly, 
in  the  33d  Sura  we  read :  “  O  true  believers,  enter  not  the 
houses  of  the  Prophet,  unless  it  be  permitted  you  to  eat  meat 
with  him,  without  waiting  his  convenient  time:  but  when  ye 
are  invited,  then  enter .  And  when  ye  ask  of  the  Proph¬ 

et’s  wives  what  ye  have  occasion  for,  ask  it  of  them  from  be¬ 
hind  a  curtain.  This  will  be  more  pure  for  your  hearts,  and 
for  their  hearts.  Neither  is  it  fit  for  you  to  give  any  uneasi¬ 
ness  to  the  apostle  of  God,  or  to  marry  his  wives  after  him 
forever ;  for  this  would  be  a  grievous  thing  in  the  sight  of 
God.”* 

When  Ayesha  returned,  seated  upon  Safwan’s  camel,  she 
won  Mohammed’s  belief  in  her  protestations  of  innocence. 
But  the  Prophet  found  that  evil  tongues  were  not  stopped 
from  speaking  against  the  woman  who,  after  the  death  of 
Khadijah,had  the  strongest  and  most  enduring  hold  upon  his 
affections.  He  resorted  therefore,  as  was  usual  with  him  in 
any  personal  difficulty,  to  revelation ;  and  in  a  Sura  which,  as 
I  have  before  said,  was  introduced  as  specially  “  sent  down 
from  heaven,”  he  promulgated  a  new  law  for  the  punishment 
of  Ayesha’s  enemies.  “  Those,”  says  the  Koran,  in  the  24th 
Sura,  “  who  accuse  women,  and  produce  not  four  witnesses 
of  the  fact,  scourge  them  with  fourscore  stripes,  and  never 
more  receive  their  testimony,  for  such  are  infamous  prevari¬ 
cators .  As  to  the  party  among  you  who  have  published 

the  falsehood  concerning  Ayesha, - every  man  of  them  shall 

be  punished  according  to  the  injustice  of  which  he  hath  been 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 


484 


THEOUGH  TERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

guilty.’  And  according  to  this  ex  post  facto  law',  those  who 
spread  the  scandal— Abd’allah  Ebn  Obba,  Zeid  Ebn  Refaa, 
Hassan  Ebn  Thabet,Mesta  Ebn  Othatha,and  Hanna  Bint  Ja- 
bash  — all  received  fourscore  stripes,  except  Abd’allah,  who 
was  too  considerable  a  person  to  be  beaten,  even  by  the  au¬ 
thority  of  the  Koran.  On  this  occasion  Mohammed  pro¬ 
pounded,  by  way  of  the  Koran,  one  of  the  very  few  laws 
which  pretend  to  be  equitable  in  the  relations  of  polygamous 
husband  and  wife.  “  They,”  he  dictated  in  the  same  Sura, 

“  who  shall  accuse  their  wives  of  adultery,  and  shall  have  no 
witnesses  thereof  besides  themselves ;  the  testimony  which 
shall  be  required  of  one  of  them  shall  be,  that  he  swear  four 
times  by  God  that  he  speaketh  the  truth,  and  the  fifth  time 
that  he  imprecate  the  curse  of  God  on  him  if  he  be  a  liar. 

And  it  shall  avert  the  punishment  from  the  wife,  if  she  swear 
four  times  by  God  that  he  is  a  liar;  and  if  the  fifth  time  she 
imprecate  the  wrath  of  God  on  her  if  he  speaketh  the  truth.”* 

Islam  is  adverse  to  civilization;  the  Koran  is  not  ‘^suffi¬ 
ciently  elastic  in  expression  to  admit  of  progressive  develop¬ 
ments  and  interpretations,”  because  it  is  a  religion  essentially 
opposed  to  the  progress  of  humanity.  It  is  a  religion  of  force 
and  of  sex.  “  The  true  servants  of  God,”  says  the  Koran, 
concerning  the  Mohammedan  heaven,  will  be  rewarded  with 
“delicious  fruits,  and  the  virgins  of  paradise  withholding 
their  countenance  from  any  other  than  their  spouses,  having 
large  black  eyes,  and  skin  like  the  eggs  of  an  ostrich.”  The 
coarse  materialism  of  this,  and  many  other  passages  almost 
similar  in  w'ords,  together  with  other  passages  I  have  quoted 
bearing  upon  the  relations  of  Islam  with'  infidels,  sustain  Mr.  i 

Gladstone’s  description  of  the  Turks,  of  whom,  in  his  eloquent  j 
pamphlet,  he  says, “For  the  guide  of  this  life  they  had  a  re-  j 
lentless  fatalism ;  for  its  rew\ard  hereafter,  a  sensual  paradise.” 


*  Sale’s  ‘‘Al  Koran.” 


THE  MOHAMMEDAN  PAEADTSE. 


485 


This  iinspiritual,  sexual  language  of  the  Koran  has  been 
dealt  with  by  an  English  apologist  in  a  very  shallow  argu¬ 
ment.  The  writer  of  “  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism  ” 
clearly  knows  nothing  whatever  of  Oriental  people.  He  would’ 
probably  be  surprised,  as  well  as  shocked,  to  find  that  among 
the  superior  classes  the  conversation  is  of  this  character,  even 
in  the  presence  of  women  and  children.  It  is  a  hard  fact, 
that  no  higher  ideal  of  supernatural  life  is  given  in  the  Koran ; 
and  the  grossness  of  the  picture  is,  we  are  told,  explained  by 
Mohammedans  to  be  merely  “  Oriental  imagery.”  This  might 
seem  plausible  at  a  distance,  if  the  programme  of  Moham¬ 
med’s  heaven  included  entertainments  for  women — if  for  them 
there  were  something  more  than  bare  admission.  They  are 
not  even  translated  into  the  black-eyed  virgins  ”  who  are  to 
share  the  fruits  and  the  couches  of  paradise ;  for,  says  the 
Koran,  “We  have  created  the  damsels  of  paradise  by  a  pe¬ 
culiar  creation.” 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  contrast  one  religion  with  another. 
I  am  not  engaged  in  the  defense  of  Christianity,  nor  in  the 
needless  work  of  vindicating  its  superiority  to  Islam ;  yet  it 
is  with  a  feeling  of  offense  that  I  find  in  the  work  above  men¬ 
tioned  the  heaven  of  Mohammed  contrasted  with  the  heaven 
of  Christ,  “  where  they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given  in  mar¬ 
riage and  the  sensual  hereafter  of  Mohammed  condoned 
with  the  absurd  apology,  that  “  a  polygamous  people  could 
hardly  have  pictured  to  themselves  a  heaven  without  polyga¬ 
my.”  The  raison  cVetre  of  women  on  earth,  in  the  eyes  of 
Mohammedans,  has  been  translated  so  faithfully  and  truly 
into  their  heaven  as  to  lead  many  to  suppose  that  the  Koran 
allows  no  future  life  to  women.  But  evidently  the  denial  of 
a  share  of  paradise  to  women  was  not  the  idea  of  the  dic¬ 
tator  of  the  Koran.  He  constructed  heaven  as  he  observed 
the  earth,  and  has  therefore,  not  without  show  of  reason,  been 
held  to  have  denied  the  immortality  of  women,  while  extolling 


486  THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 

that  of  men.  If  all  the  Turcophiles  in  the  world  tug  togeth- 
ei  at  the  words  of  the  Koran,  they  can  not  be  expanded,  or 
reasonably  interpreted,  so  as  to  exhibit  an  equality  of  divine 
favor  to  men  and  women. 

When  Mohammed  grew  strong,  he  became  the  relentless 
persecutor,  the  cruel  exterminator,  of  the  Jewish  tribes  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Medina.  But  the  early  Suras  of  the  Koran 
suggest  that  there  was  a  time  when  he  labored  to  stand  well 
with  the  Jews,  and  with  those  of  them  who  had  become 
Christians,  or  who  honored  Jesus  Christ  as  a  great  prophet. 
Mohammed  relieved  the  Jews  from  the  crime  of  Christ’s 
crucifixion.  He  caused  this  to  be  written  in  the  Koran: 
‘‘They  have  said,  ‘Verily  we  have  slain  Jesus,  the  Son  of 
Maiy,  the  apostle  of  Cod,’  yet  they  slew  him  not,  neither 
crucified  him,  but  he  was  represented  by  one  in  his  likeness. 
They  did  not  really  kill  him,  but  God  took  him  U23  to  himself, 
and  God  is  mighty  and  wise.”*  Christianity  was  becoming 
a  considerable  power  in  the  time  of  Mohammed ;  and  so  far 
as  he  understood  the  doctrines  of  Christ,  he  adopted  them. 
But  it  never  occurred  to  Mohammed  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
God.  He  acknowledged  the  birth  of  Christ  as  miraculous. 
The  veision  of  the  birth  of  Christ  given  in  the  Koran  is  said 
to  have  been  obtained  from  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Bar¬ 
nabas.  It  is  very  curious :  We  sent  our  spirit  Gabriel  unto 
her,  and  he  appeared  unto  her  in  the  shape  of  a  perfect  man. 
He  said,  ‘Verily  I  am  the  messenger  of  thy  Lord,  and  am 
sent  to  give  thee  a  holy  son.’  The  pains  of  childbirth  came 
upon  her  near  the  trunk  of  an  old  palm-tree.  She  said, 

‘  Would  to  God  I  had  died  before  this,  and  had  become  a 
thing  forgotten  and  lost  in  oblivion  !’  And  a  voice  called  to 
her:  ‘Be  not  grieved  now  that  God  hath  provided  a  rivulet 
undei  thee ,  and  do  thou  shake  the  body  of  the  palm-tree. 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 


MIRACLES  OF  CHRIST  IN  THE  KORAN. 


487 


and  it  shall  let  fall  ripe  dates  upon  thee,  and  eat  and  drink, 
and  calm  thy  mind.’  And  when  she  brought  the  child  to  her 
own  people,  and  they  said,  ‘  Thou  hast  done  a  strange  thing,’ 
she  made  signs  to  the  child  to  answer  them ;  and  they  said, 

‘  How  shall  we  speak  to  him,  who  is  an  infant  in  the  cradle  ?’ 
Whereupon  the  child  said,  ‘Verily  I  am  the  servant  of  God; 
he  hath  given  me  the  book  of  the  Gospel,  and  hath  appointed 
me  a  prophet.  And  he  hath  made  me  blessed  wheresoever 
I  shall  be,  and  hath  commanded  me  to  observe  prayer  and  to 
give  alms  so  long  as  I  shall  live.  And  he  hath  made  me 
dutiful  toward  my  mother,  and  hath  not  made  me  proud  nor 
unhappy.  And  peace  be  on  me  the  day  whereon  I  was  born, 
and  the  day  whereon  I  shall  die,  and  the  day  whereon  I  shall 
be  raised  to  life.  This  was  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary.”  And 
again :  “Verily  Christ  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary,  is  the  Apostle 
of  God,  and  his  word  which  he  conveyed  into  Mary,  and  a 
spirit  proceeding  from  him.”  “  God  ”  speaks  again  and  again 
in  the  Koran  of  the  “evident  miracles”  which  he  permitted 
Jesus  to  work;  but  the  Koran  never  leans  to  the  doctrine 
that  Christ  is  God.  “  They  are  infidels  who  say,  ‘  Verily  God 
is  Christ,  the  son  of  Mary.’  ”  “And  when  God  shall  say  unto 
Jesus  at  the  last  day,  ‘  O  Jesus,  son  of  Mary,  hast  thou  said 
unto  men.  Take  me  and  my  mother  for  two  gods  beside  God  ?’ 
he  shall  answer, ‘I  have  not  spoken  unto  them  any  other  than 
what  thou  didst  command  me  —  namely.  Worship  God,  my 
Lord  and  your  Lord.’ 

An  Enedish  school  leans  to  Islam  because  it  is  monotheistic ; 
they  touch  gently  on  its  faults  for  the  sake  of  its  assertion  of 
the  unity  of  God.  Perhaps  we  should  have  fewer  exhibitions 
of  this  sort  if  it  were  generally  known  that,  while  denying 
the  Godhead  of  Christ,  the  Koran  accepts  his  miraculous  con¬ 
ception  and  birth ;  and,  denying  that  he  was  crucified,  holds 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 


488 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN^. 


to  his  miracles,  and  declares  that  those  miracles  were  an  ex¬ 
hibition  of  divine  powers.  We  must  recognize  the  fact  that 
to  write  upon  the  history  and  the  influence  of  religions,  one 
upon  another,  in  a  way  to  be  of  permanent  value,  something 
more  is  requisite  than  is  displayed  by  any  of  the  apologist! 
of  Mohammedanism  whom  we  have  met  with.  When  one  of 
these  writes  of  an  elastic  ”  Bible,  and  of  stretching  ”  the 
Koran,  toward  what  line  is  it  that  these  sacred  books  are  to 

be  sU-amed?  Keligion,  it  seems,  is  to  be  made  to  fit  in  with 
civilization. 

If  -we  want  to  understand  whether  there  is  any  thing  in 
Islam  opposed  to  this  union  with  civilization,  we  must  know 
what  we  mean  by  one  and  by  the  other.  We  have  now  seen 
something  of  the  doctrines  of  Islam.  What,  then,  is  civiliza¬ 
tion?  If  It  were  merely  buying  iron-dads,  laying  down  tele¬ 
graph-wires,  borrowing  money  upon  worthless  paper,  building 
with  glass  and  iron,  or  arming  men  with  breech-loaders,  I 
should  say,  « Islam  has  done  all  these  things.”  But  I  take 
civilization  to  be,  in  its  briefest  meaning,  the  extension  of 
civil  lights  the  co-existence  of  the  supremacy  of  law  with 
the  liberty  of  individuals  to  develop  and  employ  their  facul¬ 
ties  for  their  own  utmost  happiness  and  advantage. 

The  sum  of  success  in  this  endeavor  is  ever  increasing. 
We  know  more  truly  than  we  can  know  any  other  thing  that 

“Through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs;” 

and  we  have  in  this  fact,  in  the  increasing  individuality  of 
mankind,  in  what  we  call  progress  or  civilization,  a  test  by 
which  to  judge  the  doctrines  of  religion,  whether  they  be 
transient  or  eternal.  Of  the  facts  which  the  history  of  the 
world  has  furnished,  no  one  is  more  patent  than  the  fact  and 
the  method  of  human  progress,  in  which  many  religions  have 
been,  and  will  bo,  submerged.  Mankind  is  outgrowing,  or  has 
outgrown,  the  practices  of  slavery  and  polygamy  which  are 


MOHAMMEDANISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 


489 


sanctioned  by  the  Koran,  and  which  did  not  seem  liateful  in 
the  days  of  Christ.  The  experiences  of  life  lead  to  the  laws 
of  life,  which  are  necessarily  more  and  more  concerned  with 
the  rights  of  individuals.  Of  the  Book  of  Mohammed,  noth¬ 
ing  is  left,  in  the  light  of  the  present  civilization,  but  the  idea 
of  God,  supreme,  omnipotent,  impersonal.  It  is  not  so  with 
the  words  of  Christ.  His  standard — that  of  the  brotherhood 
of  mankind — is  the  banner  of  the  time  to  come,  and  gives  the 
largest  prospect  of  progress  which  eyes  can  see  upon  the  ho¬ 
rizon  of  humanity. 

The  Christians  of  Turkey  are  often  dishonest,  not  seldom 
drunken;  and  though  not  inferior  to  the  people  of  Russia  in 
political  capacity,  are  in  this  respect  far  beneath  the  level  of 
any  other  European  people.  But  theirs  are  vices  and  defi¬ 
ciencies  such  as  ages  of  oppression  by  a  foreign  soldiery  (the 
Turks  are  such  to  them)  would  produce  anywhere.  They 
have  had  no  instruction — no  consolation,  except  from  priests 
as  ignorant  as  themselves.  The  extolled  virtues  of  the  Turk 
are  those  which  have  ever  been  exhibited  by  conquerors  in 
the  plenitude  of  supremacy  above  millions  who  toil  to  make 
their  wealth,  such  as  a  foreigner  would  have  seen  in  the  An- 
glo-Kornians  eight  hundred  years  ago. 

In  Mohammedan  countries,  where  there  is  no  interference 
by  civilized  powers,  we  have  seen  that  a  convert  to  Chris¬ 
tianity  forfeits  his  property  upon  application  to  the  Sheik-ul- 
Islam  by  the  next  of  kin.  In  the  present  year,  an  Armenian 
Christian  of  rank  postponed  his  visit  to  a  royal  personage  on 
account  of  wet  weather.  I  asked  him  what  connection  the 
humidity  of  the  atmosphere  had  with  his  intention,  and  he 
said  that  non-Mussulmans  were  not  welcome;  the  tradition 
from  the  times  when  they  were  forbidden  to  walk  the  streets 
in  wet  weather — in  order  that  Islam  might  avoid  the  supe¬ 
rior  power  of  contamination  which  their  garments  acquired 
by  moisture — being  not  yet  quite  forgotten.  It  is  not  true 

21^ 


490 


THROUGH  PERSIA  BY  CARAVAN. 


that  the  non-Mussulman  population  has  a  monopoly  of  intem¬ 
perance.  I  have  never  seen  people  drink  ardent  spirits  in 
such  large  quantities  as  some  Mohammedans  of  station  whom 
I  have  met  with  in  travel.  A  Moslem  prince  lately  asked  me 
why  I  drank  wine.  “  It  does  not  make  you  drunk.  I  take 
arrack,”  he  added.  English  doctors  in  the  East  are  frequent¬ 
ly  summoned  to  cases  of  delirium  tremens,  but 

“Offense’s  gilded  hand  doth  shove  by  justice.” 

The  rich  Moslem  drinks  privately,  the  non-Mussulman  pub¬ 
licly.  The  Moslem  drinks  at  night,  the  non-Mussulman  at  all 
times.  Perhaps  a  majority  of  Mohammedans  would  refuse 
to  drink  intoxicating  liquor;  though  in  a  troop  of  servants 
I  have  never  seen  more  thg,n  a  respectable  minority  of  this 
mind ;  and  it  is  possible — indeed  it  is  probable — that  of  the 
poor,  many  believe  the  Koran  to  be  as  inexorable  as  our 
Good  Templars.  The  belief  is  common  throughout  Europe 
that  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  forbidden  in  the  Ko¬ 
ran.  The  author  of  “Mohammed  and  Mohammedanisni ” 
falls  into  this  error.  He  says  that  Mohammed  absolutely 
prohibited  gambling  and  intoxicating  liquors.  The  Prophet 
did  nothing  of  the  sort  in  the  Koran.  The  words  of  the 
Moslem  Bible  are  these :  They  will  ask  thee  concerning 
wine  and  lots  \al  meiser\.  Answer,  In  both  there  is  great 
sin,  and  also  some  things  of  use  unto  men;  but  their  sinful¬ 
ness  is  greater  than  their  use.”*  I  should  suppose  that  even 
Mr.  Bass  would  go  as  far  as  this.  It  is,  however,  the  belief  of 
pious  Moslems  that  when  Omar  demanded  from  the  Prophet 
direction  more  definite,  in  order  that  a  better  condition  might 
be  maintained  among  the  then  encompassed  army  of  Islam, 
Mohammed  did  in  some  terms  forbid  gambling  and  the  drink¬ 
ing  of  intoxicating  liquors;  but  this  prohibition  was  never 


*  Sale’s  “A1  Koran.” 


SUPEEIOEITY  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


491 


made  part  of  the  Koran.  In  Mohammed’s  paradise  we  find 
the  apotheosis  of  Bacchus.  Youths  in  perpetual  bloom  are 
to  attend  the  happy  “  with  goblets,  and  beakers,  and  cups  of 
fiowing  wine;  their  heads  shall  not  ache  by  drinking  the 
same,  neither  shall  their  reason  be  disturbed.”  The  “black- 
eyed  damsels  ”  are  again  introduced,  and  the  promise  is  giv¬ 
en  to  the  men  in  paradise,  “  They  shall  not  hear  vain  dis¬ 
course,  or  charge  of  sin,  but  only  the  salutation,  ‘Peace! 
peace  !’  ”  As  to  gambling,  Mohammedans  play  cards  upon 
the  sands  of  the  desert,  as  well  as  upon  the  decks  of  ships, 
and  on  the  carpets  and  mats  of  their  homes. 

But  I  have  made  ill  use  of  the  present  opportunity  if  I 
have  induced  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader  an  impression 
very  favorable  to  the  Christians  ^of  Turkey  and  Persia.  For 
this  much  I  am  always  prepared  to  contend:  they  do  pos¬ 
sess,  and  their  masters  do  not  possess,  a  religion  which  ad¬ 
mits  of  progressive  developments  and  interpretations.  The 
progress  of  humanity  may  for  all  time  be  illumined  by  the 
morals  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  nothing  to  show  that 
Mohammedanism  is  more  successful  in  proselytizing  Eastern 
peoples  than  the  harshly  dogmatic,  un-Christian  “  Christian-, 
ity”  of  some  dogmatic  preachers.  We  may  develop  and  in¬ 
terpret  Christ’s  teaching  as  universal,  for  all  sorts  and  con¬ 
ditions  of  men,  and  without  distinction  of  sex.  The  purest 
doctrines  of  liberty  entered  the  world  by  the  mouth  of  Christ. 
Mohammedanism  is  a  democracy  for  men  —  and  not  for  all 
men,  but  only  for  such  as  are  not  slaves ;  and  with  these  last 
and  lowest  the  whole  sex  of  women  is  placed.  The  religion 
of  Islam  is  incompatible  with  progress,  and  must  decline  with 
the  advance  of  civilization. 


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By  CuARLTON  T.  Lewis.  Illustrated.  Crown  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

LIVINGSTONE’S  SOUTH  AFRICA.  Missionary  Travels  and  Researches  in 
.  South  Africa ;  including  a  Sketch  of  Sixteen  Years’  Residence  in  the  Interior 
of  Africa,  and  a  Journey  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  Loando  on  the  West 
Coast ;  thence  across  the  Continent,  down  the  River  Zambesi,  to  the  Eastern 
Ocean.  By  David  Livingstone,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  With  Portrait,  Maps,  and  Illus¬ 
trations.  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  50. 


Narrative  of  an  Expedition  to  the  Zambesi  and 
Its  Tributaries,  and  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Lakes  Shirwa  and  Nyassa  1S58— 

8?S^’cio?h  Charles  Livingstone.  With  Map  and  Illustrations. 


LIVINGSTONE’S  LAST  JOURNALS.  The  Last  Journals  of  David  Livin- 
stone,  in  Central  Africa,  from  1865  to  his  Death.  Continued  by  a  Narrative 
of  his  Last  Moments  and  Sufterings,  ootained  from  his  Faithful  Servants 
Chuma  and  Susi.  By  Horace  Waller,  P.R.G.S.,  Rector  of  Twvwell  North 
ampton.  With  Portrmt,  Maps,  and  Illustrations.’  Svo,  Cloth,  $^00  ’ 
Popular  Edition,  Svo,  Cloth,  with  :Map  and  Illustrations,  $2  50.  ^ 

LOSSING’S  FIELD-BOOK  OP  THE  REVOLUTION.  Pictorial  Field-Book  of 
the  Revolution ;  or,  Illustrations  by  Pen  and  Pencil  of  the  History,  Bioo^ra- 
phy.  Scenery,  Relics,  and  Traditions  of  the  War  for  Independence  Bv  b'Vn- 

Ml  TuAerMoroL™'&  0™’  “  ■ 

the  \\  ai  of  181^;  or,  IllusD-ations  by  Pen  and  Pencil  of  the  History,  Bio^-ra- 
phy,  Scene^,  Relics,  and  Traditions  of  the  last  War  for  American  independ¬ 
ence.  By  Benson  J.  Lossing.  With  several  hundred  Engravings  on  Wood 
by  Lossing  and  Barntt,  chiefly  from  Original  Sketches  by  the  Author.  108S 
pages,  Svo,  Cloth,  $T  00 ;  Sheep,  $S  50;  Half  Calf,  $10  00. 

MACAULAY’S  IHSTORY  OP  ENGLAND.  The  History  of  England  from  the 
Accession  of  James  II.  By  Thomas  Barington  Macaulay.  With  Portrait 
5  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $10  00 ;  12mo,  Cloth,  $5  00.  -roiiraii. 

AND  LETTERS.  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulav 
By  his  Nephevv,  G.  Otto  Trevelyan,  M.P.  With  Portrait  on  Steel.  Complete 

$9  ^TTree'^Calf!  $15  oT^'^  ^  ^alf, 


Valuable  and  Interesting  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries.  5 


M'CLINTOCK  &  STRONG’S  CYCLOPEDIA.  Cyclopaedia  of  Biblical,  Theo¬ 
logical,  aud  Ecclesiastical  Literature,  Prepared  by  the  Rev.  John  M'Clin- 
TOCK,  D.U.,  and  James  Stkono,  S.T.D.  6  vols,  now  ready.  Royal  8vo.  Price 
per  vol.,  Cloth,  $5  00 ;  Sheep,  $0  00 ;  Half  Morocco,  $8  00. 

MOHAMMED  AND  MOHAMMEDANISM :  Lectures  Delivered  at  the  Royal 
Institution  of*Great  Britain  in  February  aud  March,  1874.  By  R.  Boswoiitu 
Smith,  M.  A.,  Assistant  Master  in  Harrow  School ;  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  Col¬ 
lege,  Oxford.  With  an  Appendix  containing  Emanuel  Deutsch’s  Article  on 
“Islam.”  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 

MOSHEIM’S  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY,  Ancient  and  Modern  ;  in  which  the 
Rise,  Progress,  and  Variation  of  Church  Power  are  considered  in  their  Con¬ 
nection  with  the  State  of  Learning  aud  Philosophy,  and  the  Political  History 
of  Europe  during  that  Period.  Translated,  with  Notes,  &c.,  by  A.  Maolaine, 
D.D.  A  new  Edition,  continued  to  1826,  by  C.  Coote,  LL.D.  2  vols.,  Svo, 
Cloth,  $4  00.- 

MOTLEY’S  DUTCH  REPUBLIC.  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  A  History. 
By  John  Lothrop  Moteey,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  With  a  Portrait  of  William  of 
Orange.  3  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $10  50. 

MOTLEY’S  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  History  of  the  United  Netherlands; 
from  the  Death  of  William  the  Silent  to  the  Twelve  Years’  Truce  — 1609. 
With  a  full  View  of  the  English -Dutch  Struggle  against  Spain,  and  of  the 
Origin  and  Destruction  of  the  Spanish  Armada.  By  John  Lothrop  Motley, 
LL.D.,  D.C.L.  Portraits.  4  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $14  00. 

MOTLEY’S  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  JOHN  OF  BARNEVELD.  The  Life  and 
Death  of  John  of  Barueveld,  Advocate  of  Holland  ;  with  a  View  of  the  Prima¬ 
ry  Causes  and  Movements  of  “The  Thirty-years’  War.”  By  John  Lothrop 
Motley,  LL.D., D.C.L.  Illustrated.  In  2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $7  00. 

MYERS’S  REMAINS  OF  LOST  EIMPIRES.  Remains  of  Lost  Empires :  Sketches 
of  the  Ruins  of  Palmyra,  Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Persepolis,  with  some  Notes 
on  India  and  the  Cashmerian  Himalayas.  By  P.  V.  N.  Myers.  Illustrated. 
Svo,  Cloth,  $3  50. 

NORDHOFF’S  COMMUNISTIC  SOCIETIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
The  Communistic  Societies  of  the  United  States,  from  Personal  Visit  aud  Ob¬ 
servation  ;  including  Detailed  Accounts  of  the  Economists,  Zoarites,  Shakers, 
the  Amaua,  Oneida,  Bethel,  Aurora,  Icarian,  aud  other  existiu|?  Societies. 
With  Particulars  of  their  Religious  Creeds  aud  Practices,  their  Social  Theories 
and  Life,  Numbers,  Industries,  aud  Present  Condition.  By  Charles  NoiinHOFF. 
Illustrations.  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00. 

RAWLINSON’S  MANUAL  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  A  Manual  of  Ancient 
History,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Fall  of  the  Western  Empire.  Com¬ 
prising  the  History  of  Chaldsea,  Assyria,  Media,  Babylonia,  Lydia,  Phoenicia, 
Syria,  Judiea,  Egypt,  Carthage,  Persia,  Greece,  Macedonia,  Parthia,  and  Rome. 
By  George  Rawlinson,  M.A.,  Camden  Professor  of  Ancient  History  in  the 
University  of  Oxford.  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 

RECLUS’S  EARTH.  The  Earth :  a  Descriptive  History  of  the  Phenomena  of  the 
Life  of  the  Globe.  By  ^ltsee  Reolus.  With  234  Maps  and  Illustrations,  and 
23  Page  Maps  printed  in  Colors.  Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

RECLUS’S  OCEAN.  The  Ocean,  Atmosphere,  and  Life.  Being  the  Second  Series 
of  a  Descriptive  History  of  the  Life  of  the  Globe.  By  Elibee  Reolus.  Pro¬ 
fusely  Illustrated  with  250  Maps  or  Figures,  and  27  Maps  printed  in  Colors. 
Svo,  Cloth,  $6  00. 

SCHWEINFURTH’S  HEART  OF  AFRICA.  The  Heart  of  Africa.  Three  Years’ 
Travels  and  Adventures  in  the  Unexplored  Regions  of  the  Centre  of  Africa. 
From  1868  to  1871.  By  Dr.  Georg  Souweinfurth.  Translated  by  Ellen  E. 
Frewer.  With  an  Introduction  by  Winwoou  Reade.  Illustrated  by  about 
130  Woodcuts  from  Drawings  made  by  the  Author,  aud  with  two  Maps.  2  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $8  00. 

SIIAKSPEARE.  The  Dramatic  Works  of  William  Shakspeare.  With  Correc¬ 
tions  and  Notes.  Engravings.  G  vo)^.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $9  00.  2  vols.,  Svo, 

Cloth,  $t  00. 


6  V 2luable  and  Interesting  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries. 


OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  The  Huguenots :  their  Settle- 
England  and  Ireland.  By  Samukl  Smiles. 
^2  00^^  relating  to  the  Huguenots  in  America.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth, 

SMILES’S  HUGUENOTS  AFTER  THE  REVOCATION.  The  Huf^uenots  in 

Revocatioii  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes;  with  a  Visit  to  the 
Country  of  the  Vaudois.  By  Samuel  Smiles.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

SMILES’S  LIFE  OF  THE  STEPHENSONS.  The  Life  of  George  Stephenson 
and  of  his  Son,  Robert  Stephenson ;  comprising,  also,  a  History  of  S  Im 
and  Introduction  of  the  Railway  Locomotive.  By  Samuel  Smiles 
With  Steel  Portraits  and  numerous  Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 

STRICKLAND’S  (Miss)  QUEENS  OP  SCOTLAND.  Lives  of  the  Queens  of 
Scotland  and  English  Princesses  connected  with  the  Regal  Succession  of 
Great  Britain.  By  Agnes  Stkicklanp.  8  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $12  00. 

™  per  v^lum^'^'^  SERIES.  With  Maps  and  Illustrations.  12mo,  Cloth,  $2  00 

Fkanob.— Gibbon.— Greece — Hume.— Rome  (by  Lippell).— Olt>  Testament 
^^®'i’ament  History — Strickland’s  Queens  of  England 
(Abridged).— Ancient  History  of  tue  East.— Hallam’s  Middle  Ages 
-Hallam  8  Constitutional  History  of  England.-Lyell’s  Elements 
op  Geologi  .— Merivale  8  General  History  op  Rome.— Cox’s  General 
History  of  Greece.— Classical  Dictionary.  v^eneral 

poems.  The  Poetical  Works  of  Alfred  Tennvson 
Poet  Laureate  With  numerous  Illustrations  by  Eminent  Artists,  and  ThrJe 
Characteristic  Portraits.  8vo,  Paper,  $1  00;  Cloth,  $1  50. 

THOMSON’S  LAND  ANB  THE  BOOK.  The  Land  and  the  Book;  or,  Biblical 
lllustiations  drawn  from  the  Manners  and  Customs,  the  Scenes  and  the  Scen¬ 
ery  of  the  Holy  Land.  By  W.  M.  Thomson,  D.D.,  Twenty-five  Years  a  Mis- 
sionary  of  the  A.B.C.F.M.  in  Syria  and  Palestine.  With  two  elaborate  Maps 
of  Palestine,  an  accurate  Plan  of  Jerusalem,  and  several  hundred  Eno-raviuff« 
representing  the  Scenery,  Topography,  and  Productions  of  the  Holy  LaS’ 
and  the  Costumes,  Manners,  and  Habits  of  the  People.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth’ 

ipo  ^  * 

LANDS.  Bible  Lands;  their  Modern  Customs  and 
Manners  Illustrative  of  Scripture.  By  the  Rev.  Henry  J.  Van-Lennep,  D.D 
Illustrated  with  npvi'ard  of  350  Wood  Engravings  and  two  Colored  Maps.' 
838  pp.,  8vo,  Cloth,  .$5  00  ;  Sheep,  $6  00 ;  Half  Morocco,  $S  00.  ^ 

VINCENT’S  LAND  OF  THE  WHITE  ELEPHANT.  The  Land  of  the  White 
Elephant:  Sights  and  Scenes  in  Southeastern  Asia.  A  Personal  Narrative 
ot  1  ravel  and  Adventure  in  Farther  India,  embracing  the  Countries  of  Bur- 
nia,  Siam,  Ciimbodia,  and  Cochin-China  (1871-2).  By  Frank  Vincent  Jr 
Illustrated  with  Maps,  Plans,  and  Woodcuts.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  50.  ’ 

WALLACE’S  GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OP  ANIMALS.  The  Geo- 
graphical  Distribution  of  Animals.  With  a  Study  of  the  Relations  of  Livino- 
and  Extinct  Faunas  as  Elucidating  the  Past  Changes  of  the  Earth’s  Surface! 
CloBi^  Wallace.  With  Maps  and  Illustrations.  In  2  vols.,  Svoj 

WALLACE’S  MALAY  ARCHIPELAGO.  The  Malay  Archipelago:  the  Land  of 

Paradise.  A  Narrative  of  Travel,  1S.54-1SG2. 
With  btudms  of  Man  and  Nature.  By  Alfred  Russel  Wallace.  With  Ten 
Maps  and  Fifty-one  Elegant  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

WHITE’S  MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.  The  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
Preceded  by  a  History  of  the  Religions  Wars  in  the  Reign  of 
Chmles  IX.  By  Henry  White,  M. A.  With  Illustrations.  Crown  Svo,  Cloth, 

holmes  WITHOUT  HANDS.  Homes  Without  Hands :  being  a  Descrip- 
Animals,  classed  according  to  their  Principle  of  Con- 
stiuction.  By  J.  G.  Wood,  M.A.,  F.L.S.  Illustrated.  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  50. 

nf  ANTOINETTE.  The  Life  of  IMarie  Antoinette, 

J  By.^-iiARLES  Duke  Yongk,  Regius  Professor  of  Modern 

Ciwi78vo^cf 'th  $2  Queen’s  College,  Belfast.  W^ith  Portrait. 


Valuable  and  Interesting  Wo7’ks  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries.  7 


TYERMAN’S  WESLEY.  The  Life  and  Times  of  the  Eev.  John  Wesley,  M.A., 
Founder  of  the  Methodists.  By  the  Rev.  Luke  Tyerman.  Portraits.  3  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $7  50. 

TYERMAN’S  OXFORD  METHODISTS.  The  Oxford  Methodists:  Memoirs  of 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Clayton,  Ingham,  Gambold,  Hervey,  and  Broughton,  with 
Biographical  Notices  of  others.  By  the  Rev.  L.  Tykkman.  With  Portraits. 
8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

VAMB;^RY’S  CENTRAL  ASIA.  Travels  in  Central  Asia.  Being  the  Account 
of  a  Journey  from  Teheren  across  the  Turkoman  Desert,  on  the  Eastern 
Shore  of  the  Caspian,  to  Khiva,  Bokhara,  and  Samarcand,  performed  in  the 
Year  1863.  By  Arminics  Vambery,  Member  of  the  Hungarian  Academy  of 
Pesth,  by  whom  he  was  sent  on  this  Scientific  Mission.  With  Map  and 
Woodcuts.  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  50. 

POETS  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  The  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century.  Selected  and  Edited  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Aris  "Willaiott.  With 
English  and  American  Additions,  arranged  by  Evert  A.  Ddtckinok,  Editor 
of  “  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature.”  Comprising  Selections  from  the 
Greatest  Authors  of  the  Age.  Superbly  Illustrated  with  141  Engravings  from 
Designs  by  the  most  Eminent  Artists.  In  Elegant  small  4to  form,  printed  on 
Superfine  Tinted  Paper,  richly  bound  in  extra  Cloth,  Beveled,  Gilt  Edges, 
$5  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $5  50 ;  Pull  Turkey  Morocco,  $9  00. 

THE  REVISION  OP  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION  OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
With  an  Introduction  by  the  Rev.  P.  Scuaff,  D.D.  618  pp..  Crown  8vo,  Cloth, 
$3  00. 

This  work  embraces  in  one  volume : 

I.  ON  A  FRESH  REVISION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  NEW  TESTAMENT.  By 
J.  B.  Lightfoot,  D.D.,  Canon  of  St.  Paul’s,  and  Hulseu  Professor  of  Divini¬ 
ty,  Cambridge.  Second  Edition,  Revised.  196  pp. 

II.  ON  THE  AUTHORIZED  VERSION  OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  in  Con¬ 
nection  with  some  Recent  Proposals  for  its  Revision.  By  Rioixard  Ciie- 
NEVix  Trench,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Dublin.  194  pp. 

III.  CONSIDERATIONS  ON  THE  REVISION  OP  THE  ENGLISH  VERSION 
OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  By  C.  J.  Ellioott,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  and  Bristol.  178  pp. 

DRAKE’S  NOOKS  AND  CORNERS  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COAST.  Nooks 
and  Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast.  By  Samuet.  Adams  Drake,  Author 
of  “  Old  Landmarks  of  Boston,”  “Historic  Fields  and  Mansions  of  Middlesex,” 
&c.  Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  50. 

NORDHOFF’S  CALIFORNIA.  California :  for  Health,  Pleasure,  and  Residence. 
A  Book  for  Travellers  and  Settlers.  Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

NORDHOPF’S  NORTHERN  CALIFORNIA,  OREGON,  AND  THE  SANDWICH 
ISLANDS.  Northern  California,  Oi’egon,  and  the  Sandwich  Islands.  By 
Charles  Nordhopf.  Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

THE  DESERT  OP  THE  EXODUS.  Journeys  on  Foot  in  the  Wilderness  of  the 
Forty  Years’  Wanderings;  undertaken  in  connection  with  the  Ordnance 
Survey  of  Sinai  and  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund.  By  E.  H.  Palmer,  M.A., 
Lord  Almoner’s  Professor  of  Arabic,  and  Fellow  of  St.  John’s  College,  Cam¬ 
bridge.  With  Maps  and  numerous  Illustrations  from  Photographs  and  Draw¬ 
ings  taken  on  the  spot  by  the  Sinai  Survey  Expedition  and  C.  P.  Tyrwhitt 
Drake.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 

BARTH’S  NORTH  AND  CENTRAL  AFRICA.  Travels  and  Discoveries  in  North 
and  Centi’al  Africa:  being  a  Joui’nal  of  an  Expedition  undertaken  under  the 
Auspices  of  H.B.M.’s  Government,  in  the  Years  1849-1855.  By  Henry  Barth, 
Ph.I).,  D.C.L.  Illustrated.  3  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $12  00. 

LYMAN  BEECHER’S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY,  &c.  Autobiography,  Correspond¬ 
ence,  &c.,  of  Lyman  Beecher,  D.D.  Edited  by  his  Son,  Charles  Beeoiier. 
With  Three  Steel  Portraits,  and  Engravings  on  Wood.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth, 
$5  00. 


HARPER’S  CATALOGUE. 


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most  esteemed  works  in  English  and  Classical  Literature — comprehend¬ 
ing  OVER  THREE  THOUSAND  VOLUMES — whicli  are  offered,  in  most  in¬ 
stances,  at  less  than  one  half  the  cost  of  similar  productions  in  England. 

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analytical  Index,  will  prove  especially  valuable  for  reference. 

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